Its Never A Life That You Live
by Tears for the Dreaming
Summary: As Max and Logan grow closer secrets are revealed, but can love bloom while a mysterious killer roams Seattle unchallenged? AU ML
1. All For None

**All For None**

_Disclaimer: Anything you could sue me for isn't mine_

This is an AU story

* * *

There he sat. Alone. For what seemed like an eternity. Jack Daniels must elongate time he figured, however much he had drank it didn't help his insomnia like he had hoped. Damn shit made him even more awake if that was possible. Well awake wasn't quite how he felt, it was more like entrancement. He felt so lonely, so detached from the world he felt physically sick. After all, Logan was yet again, truly alone in the world.

There he sat. Alone. Eternity was really only one night, the calm after the storm. The last three days had destroyed life as he knew it, leaving him with nothing but the cold emptiness he felt now. The bottle of pre pulse whiskey stood empty on the table as he downed the last of it. The rain was beating down on Seattle mercilessly, his windows showing the illuminated city glowing in the twilight. Each blurring light reminded him of something, things he didn't want reminding of. His memories and thoughts blurred, warped into a window. Then it shattered. In order to put reason to any of his thoughts he needed to go back to when it all started, back to when he woke up three days ago. Before this all happened.


	2. Just Like In Porn

**Just Like In Porn**

_Disclaimer: Anything you could sue me for isn't mine_

This is an AU story

* * *

He felt numb, he couldn't think or feel most of his body. 'Well no surprise in the latter', he thought as his mind leaked back into a coherent tool, 'after all I am paraplegic…' 

He was sprawled out in bed, legs and arms thrown to all angles and the sheets pulled over him completely. Hiding underneath his duvet was a pretty childish thing to do he thought, but it always seemed to help. He felt rough as shit, he had only got to bed at 4am and he had had way too much white rum, or Bacardi as he vaguely remembered the brand, a 1997 if his rather hazy memory of the party served him right. He smirked, 'party'… made it sound like he had a social life. By party he had meant sitting in alone and downing it straight from the bottle watching some old DVDs he had found in a box in his store room. The sun wasn't too bright this morning, and he could already hear rain, no… too hard. Must be hale stones.

His bed was all white, every material used was white silk mainly, yet with his eyes glued shut he felt nothing but black, like he was in a well, away from everything, everyone… but he didn't want to think about that. It hurt too much, nothing made sense. He really did feel like shit, more than usual. Dragging the sheets down he peered through one eye at the alarm clock, 7am. No wonder, 3 hours sleep.

"Bollocks to this" he grunted out loud before pulling the sheets back over his head, he would hide in the bottom of the well as long as he could. The only problem was that he knew he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. And logic dictates that if your awake and doing nothing physical at all, you are going to think. And like it always did Logan's self torturing traitorous mind started tearing him apart from the inside out.

His mind was a swirl of scenes from his life and what he had imagined to be the reality of what he had been told by others.

Valarie: "He's more man than you ever were!"

Bling: "I can't stand to see you do this anymore, call me when you get yourself together"

Sam: "I can't lie to you Logan, the chances of you ever walking again are next to none…"

Asha: "I'm leaving you"

The first voice was that of his Ex-wife, Valarie. They had been together for two years, the majority of the last she spent drunk, taking it out on anybody she couldn't use for something. Logan she used for sex at the start, and then she started cheating on him, so he got the brunt of her alcohol-fuelled rage. Then after her parents put her in a rehab clinic for 5 months (blaming Logan for her becoming an alcoholic in the first place) she got sober and ran off with a brawn over brains Latin "love god" as she called him. He remembered the last time he saw her well.

"Get out of my home" he said coldly, staring at her with fire spitting from his eyes. She had taken all of her things the week before, their divorce was complete and now she had no reason to be here. Yet she had called in to rub the salt in his wounds, just because she felt like it.

"He's more man than you ever were!" she spat, "you're a pitiful cunt, not even a good fuck"

"GET OUT!" He shouted, and Val knew when to leave him to burn alone.

"I'm going, and I hope you rot up here in your tower, nobody cares about you" she said as she was about to step out of the door, "Your alone".

And she was gone. As far as he knew she had left the country, with Edwardo Swarez, Mr. Latin. After that he did feel alone, he wasn't the going out type, he had little to no friends, most of the world didn't know he existed at all. He had even erased all of his records from the world's networks, being exceedingly good with computers since a young age. He was a ghost, a shadow in the dark. He didn't exist. Period.

And that was his life for three years, a loner above the world, looking down at the corruption, it wasn't too long after his first year alone that the world was introduced to Eyes Only. He had seemingly found his calling, but despite the constant danger and the slight satisfaction of feeling like a guardian angel over Seattle, he felt hollow, still alone and struggling against what seemed an unbeatable flaw in the human race itself. The rape, murder, theft… it was all the fault of those he was trying to protect, or at least some of them. He could no longer tell where the good ended and the evil began, not even in himself. Was he the good person he was always trying to be, or was a bad person trying to make amends for what he had become?

The second voice was that of Bling, his former personal trainer. Logan had gotten himself shot 6 months ago and had hired him to see if there was any chance he would ever be able to walk again. Afterfour months of intense physical, his doctor friend Sam Carr had the unfortunate task of informing him that he was, how Logan himself had put it at the time "Fucked". His legs would never work again. From then his friendship with Bling broke down, especially after Asha left. "Ah Asha," he thought, "you would be proud of me!" he tried to laugh at himself hiding in bed, but he didn't even find it funny himself.

Logan had met Asha Barlow soon after starting up Eyes Only, she was an operative of the S1W. It was a small organised vigilante group, only without the excessive violence, preferring covert sabotage of criminal operations and subterfuge. She of course didn't know Logan was Eyes Only, she merely thought he was just a contact like her. She quickly became his best friend, shortly his lover. She had a heart of gold, perhaps too much. She could tell Logan was hiding things from her, never letting her get too close to him. Like once she had told him he had "Fog bank syndrome" or something, which he smirked when he remembered. She was a great woman, he wasn't entirely sure if he loved her, or just what she stood for.

It wasn't good however, when she got attached to him. He wasn't entirely sure what went wrong but with certain things in his past shouting at him never to get too close to anybody he lost her friendship, which mattered most to him. He couldn't give her the level of attention she wanted, but what she wanted was his heart. It wasn't hers. Hell it wasn't even his, he had given it to the city, to the scum of the streets, to the good people and the innocent. He was Eyes Only, that was what he was foremost, not a person. She had left him on good terms, although she had well and truly left, to go on some underground resistance mission over in New York. That was eight months ago, she had no idea he was now a cripple. He had often wondered what she would think of him now? Wether or not she would see him in the same light. He would never know.

He pulled the sheets down again, he must have fallen asleep anyway, wadda youknow? It was eleven thirty already, and he had things to do, things outside of his penthouse apartment, which he always looked forwards to even though he had almost forgotten. Pulling on his sweat pants from under his sheets he pushed his legs off the side as he shimmied to the side of the bed. Pulling a tag coming from under the bed he pulled out a large metal contraption, his exo-skeleton. He had been given it as a thank you by one of his Eyes Only success cases. It was a man called Doctor Octavius, who specialised in robotic transportation equipment. He was being held to ransom by some thugs who Logan had put away, and he hadn't known how to thank Eyes Only himself, so he just gave his contact a gift, seen as he "Looked like he needed it" as the doc had put it seeing his frustration at being in the chair. Slipping his legs into it he heard the servomotors whirl to life and the gentle hum that he could barely hear kick in. Stand up he stretch his arms out, jumping lightly on his toes with a smirk. Mobility was severely fore granted by everybody, but never again by Logan Cale. Now he had to put his mobility to use, he was almost late.

* * *

"Hey Boo, get your lazyself outta bed before I go original on your ass!" cried Cindy from the kitchen of their "Borrowed" apartment. They called it borrowed instead of stolen because nobody owned it, so they had just borrowed it until it was sold to somebody, "Well us and another hundred or so other borrowers, and I ain't talkin' little people here" Original Cindy mused. Their apartment wasn't the best looking place ever, but it was great considering it was free, well almost free. The fat son-of-a-bitch Walter demanded a hundred bucks a month from each apartment, no matter how many people stayed in each. It wasn't bad, in fact it was quite a good deal, but Cindy never let him know that, it should be free. Walter was a cop, and he had threatened to bring in the eviction team once before when a family of Cubans upstairs hadn't been able to afford the rent, but her best friend had come to the rescue with more than enough for three months of rent, giving Walter a piece of her mind at the same time. 

Her best friend who simply refused to get out of bed. Cindy poured her a cup of cold coffee (all amenities had been shut off for the week while they got repaired for the first time in like 7 years, the water had been stored beforehand in anything water tight they could find) and proceeded to walk to her room. Their apartment was full of odds and ends, Her friends Motorcycle, or "Baby" as she called it, some old materials draping around and some ragged old sofas and chairs. It wasn't grand but Cindy had never liked Grand anyways, regal wasn't her thing.

"Yo Boo, you movin or what?" Cindy asked as she opened the door to her friend's room. Looking in she could see the bed was empty and then she heard water being poured into the bathtub. She had got the barrel in the bathroom for storing water for emergencies, but guessed that a girls not that regular bath might be considered an emergency if there ever was one.

"I'll leave your coffee on the side, I'm goin ta work, and I'll let stormin' Normal you will be a bit late" she laughed as she departed to head off to Jam Pony.

Max lay in the bath tub, her wet hair raining dripping water down her face, warm water. Such simple things just feel so good when simple things become so hard to come by. Her slim but curvaceous figure danced through the shallow water trying to get into a position where she felt warm all over, with no flowing water for another three days she couldn't spare enough for a full tub, let alone enough to fully submerge her. The few bubbles she had pooped silently as she prodded them, playing around like a child. She could play like a child whenever she felt like; she hadn't had much chance as a child after all. It was all military disciplining and training, not exactly what you would expect for a kid even in the pre-pulse world they were in. Some things just sucked ass, and her childhood was one of them. It was a Wednesday and a half day at Jam Pony, where she worked as a bike messenger. It was unheard of that Normal (Stormin' Normal as he had become known was their arsehole employer) gave them a half day, but it was the anniversary of the death of his idle, president someone or other, Max didn't particularly care as long as it got her a chance to have a bath.

Looking at her watch it was five past twelve, and she could feel her water starting to lose its warmth by the minute. Getting out she flicked her head back, throwing the hair from her face as she wrapped herself in a dark blue towel. It was a big fluffy material that went from just over her bust to just above her knees, it had cost her a shit-loada cash from a specialist fabric maker (It was impossible to find a good quality towel these days, and it was one of the finer things in life to Max). Walking out to take a sip of her coffee she heard a rather loud blunt knocking on the door.

"Be right there" she called out before spitting in the coffee and siring it in, taking it to the door along with a small wad of notes in an elastic band. Opening the door just enough to fit the coffee cup out she looked out and instantly wanted to pour something lethal into the coffee too.

"Walter, great to see you as usual" she said, the sarcasm so thick even the rather dense crooked cop got it.

"Max, time for you to pay up, and a coffee never hurts" he said trying to smile, he just had to remind himself this was the last time he would be doing this.

"Sure, here's the rent and your usual, no milk, not that we could afford any anyway" she said passing the money first and then the cup through the small gap in the door. She watched him slid the cash into his pocket and then she half grimaced half smirked as he chugged the cold coffee before giving her the cup back.

"Why you hiding behind the door Max?" he could tell she wasn't fully dressed by her still dripping went hair, "You not wanna make my day?" he chuckled, knowing full well that he had no chance in hell.

"Get outta here before I shove this cup somewhere I'm sure you'll approve" She snapped slamming the door in his face. She heard him laugh and whisper to himself "Ouch" before whistling as he proceeded to the next floor. Max turned and walked towards her bedroom, only getting half way across the room before she heard another loud knock on the door. "I'm gonna break his fuckin…" she growled as she stormed over to the door before ripping it fully open, her fist clenched at her side ready to take Walters head off, only it wasn't Walter there, it wasn't Walter at all.

"Holy Shit, he's gorgeous!" She thought, almost out loud. The dimples, the glasses, hair, jaw line, stubble shadow. Her mind couldn't focus; it was a mild sensory overload. There he stood in front of her, a bout 6'2, in a tight fitting black T-shirt with a light grey suede jacket on and black cord trousers. The boy worked out she was sure of that, good god she was getting all… wait he must want something or he wouldn't have knocked. Then she snapped out of it and realised that she was stood in full view of him in nothing more than a towel. Suddenly she hoped he wasn't a thug who would take his chances on her because she was semi dressed. He was too cute to kick his ass…

"Can I help you?" she asked a bit too aggressively, mental berating herself almost immediately, "Don't scare the poor guy Max, you've only just met"

"Yes, I'm from the company repairing your water. I was wondering if I could look at your boiler?",Logan lied, trying to remember his story. He flashed a fake ID card, but she didn't look at it, distracted somewhat by it'sowner.It was taking all his effort and self-control to make sure he didn't stare at her. She was amazing, her eyes the colour of continental chocolate, her skin a mild mocha tan and her hair weaves ofdark,charred browncurls, one raining down her beautiful face to her oh so full lips. He wished he hadn't picked the boiler story, it reminded him too much of pornography. He tried to hide the smirk. One of his college friends years ago had told him about him being worried his girlfriend was in when the gasman called. Logan had obviously asked why he was so paranoid about it and his friend had simply told him that it was just like porn, women always got it on with the gasman, something about his big spanner or something he couldn't remember, he couldn't even think clearly.

"Erm, yeah sure. It's through here" Max stood aside holding the door open for her all to welcome guest. As he walked in she checked his ass, giving it a 10/10 before giving herself a 0/10 for self-respect, 'What the hell is wrong with you?' she slapped herself mentally. He walked in, looking around a bit before turning back to her.

"In here?" he asked pointing with his thumb over his shoulder to the bathroom. How had he gotten himself into this? He had seen beautiful women before, even seduced a few, but this was different… There was just something about her.

"Yeah, I'm just going to get dressed I will be with you in a minute" she forced out, trying her hardest not to sound too interested, that would give the game away.

"Okay" he said walking into the bathroom. It was good that she wasn't in there with him, he didn't know the first thing about boilers. He just stared at it and then opened and shut the door to make it sound like he had done something useful, kneeling next to it. He was here on an Eyes Only case. He had heard that a crooked cop was going to call in the eviction squad on some innocent homeless types even though they were paying the rent in full. His contact was a girl called Kendra, and at first he thought he should call the squad himself, but after thinking about it he wouldn't do such a thing. These people needed a home, this building was un-owned and the two families he had seen before he knocked on this door seemed nice people just wanting a roof over their heads. As for now, no fucking chance in hell, doing anything to harm that girl was out of the question. He knew it was only physical attraction but he just couldn't fathom doing anything to harm her in anyway. He felt breath ripple over the back of his neck and his eyes fluttered shut for a second, a weird feeling making his stomach do back flips.

She was crouched over him looking at the boiler.

"Like what you see?" She whispered into his ear, seeing his eyes shoot open and his breath leave him. Oh yeah, she still had it alright.

"Pardon?" he choked out.

"The boiler, do you like what you see? Is it bust or what?" she smiled, knowing her double meaning had him stumped.

He could see her smiling over his shoulder in the shiny metal of the boiler, and he reminded himself he was supposed to be in control of himself. Two could play at this game he thought.

"Oh no, its not broken. Pity its not, I would like to have a look at it, see why its in such good condition" He said to her, tilting his head over his shoulder to look her in the eyes.

Max was almost stunned, he wasn't meant to do that. No other man could do that. He was pushing her buttons, and she didn't even know his name. Max stood up as he did and watched him, reluctantly as it would seem to her, walk towards the door.

"Well, I'll let myself out. It was nice to meet you miss?" he asked, dying to at least know her name. He was trying to throw himself out, but it was harder than he had thought.

"Guevara, Max Guevara. And you, what's your alias?" She asked with a smirk. She was stood so close to him it was strange considering they had just met, but it didn't feel strange at all.

Logan couldn't remember what his fake name he had prepared was, shit shit, shit!

"Logan Cale" he said. Dammit!

"Well then Logan, I'll see you around. I hope" Max said as he stepped out into the hallway. She hadn't meant for that to sound desperate, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Yeah, I hope I will. Bye Max" he said, forcing his robotically assisted legs to move him away from her, how the hell had that just happened? 'Bye Max'? I must sound like such and idiot! You don't call her by her first name that quick you dope!

Max shut the door and checked her watch, "Shit!" she muttered as she realised she was late for work, well… more late than usual.


	3. Thou Sqealeth Like A Pig

**Thou Sqealeth Like A Pig**

_Disclaimer: Anything you could sue me for isn't mine_

This is an AU story

* * *

Logan could feel the wind in his hair, the soft sweet breeze blowing in from the sea. The white sand shimmered in the sun, a pale contrast to the clear warm water. He sighed and lied back. He was the only person for a million miles. No Eyes Only, no paralysis, no nothing. He sat there in his shorts on the beach content, for once in his life he felt able to just say "Fuck it, I give up" and relax, no driving force behind his actions. Lying there he could hear nothing but to subtle lapping of the waves at his toes. Nothing. 'Except that, what is that?' he turned to look, he could hear somebody approaching him from down the beach, the sand under there feet barely making any sound. 

He couldn't make it out yet, she we female, he could tell by the figure, dark hair, and. she seemed familiar, yet not. As she approached he could see who it was. It was the girl from the apartment, Max. She was wearing next to nothing, just a flimsy white bikini. So much for calm, he could feel his heart racing, then he watched as it came out of his chest, not a bloody mess, but a cartoon heart with a smiley face appeared on his chest before jogging off in the opposite direction from Max's approach. "Hmmm." he thought, "Strange."

Max stood over him looking down with those mischievous eyes of hers, before kneeling down next to him. He was still lying down propped up on his elbows observing her, every beautiful curve, every gorgeous detail of her face. She was perfect, his mind likened her to Bast.

She smirked at him, "Like what you see?" she asked his awe struck self.

"Hell yes" he said simply, not knowing what else to say.

"Then lets make your dream come true" She leaned down and kissed him passionately, his hands snaking behind her and undoing the flimsy tie letting her top settle in the thin water underneath them now, her skin warm and inviting he stroked his hands down her back and over her all too arousing rear. She broke the kiss, now slowly nipping his ear, her breath making him shiver in the warm climate. His roaming hands came to her front and found the two things they seems made to hold, or maybe that was just the man in him talking over his mind. She was grinding against his leg as he realised what she had said. "Dream"

His eyes shot open, this wasn't the beach, and he was alone. "Fuck!" he gritted his teeth. He was in bed, it was 11.43 am (He over-slept for once) and he was relapsing to when he was 17. Whatever the hell that was he didn't know but holy shit it was vivid, like another life he was recalling. Why on earth he was having dreams of a girl he didn't even know puzzled him, because it wasn't just plain sex like the other women he had dreamed about in his life time, but it was a romantic connection, that was a first. He just wished he hadn't woken up so early, but looking at the clock he knew he was going to have to rush to make up for time lost.

He went about his usual morning routine, before going to collect his letters and parcels from his pigeonhole in the garage of Foggle Towers. Upon bringing it all back upstairs he went about sorting through it. His trust fund cheque from his uncle, some junk mail from a brothel, and a box containing an imported compact disc he had ordered from an Eyes Only contact. They had others uses, and Logan often had some music on as he went about his hacks and assorted others things made easier by some ear candy. Looking at the cracked case of the old disk case he remembered it from almost 20 years ago. It was a classicRat Pack collection, something so rare that Logan had only just been able to locate a copy despite a few years worth of efforts. He smiled a bit knowing he had at last found it, before realising that was the last package.

He was meant to have a parcel containing a chip from Canada, one that would enable his exo-skeleton to handle extra power flow, or as he liked to think of it, super charged his legs.

"Damned package delivery service is meant to make getting things easier, not harder." He muttered pulling on his coat, he would have to go collect it, he really wanted to test it tonight in the field on his reconnaissance mission down town. Grabbing the keys to his Aztec off of the counter he started off towards the Jam Pony messenger service.

* * *

"Hey Bro, look at this dude." Rasped the gang member nodding in the direction of the approaching man. 

The alley was dark, a broken streetlight flashing on and off, the flashes reminiscent of strobe lighting. Three men and two women populated the dark urban cave, the men sporting hunting knives and various handguns. The women wore little to nothing, smoking heavily ignoring the fact their makeup had run with the rain that was hammering down only an hour ago. They were a gang known as the 'Big Brovaz', not exactly scary or city renowned, but they tried. All black, they had recently swapped turf and had now taken this alley as one of their hangouts. The stared menacingly at the shadow cast figure approaching them.

Wearing a soaked brown trench coat, the lower part of the mans face was concealed by a scarf wrapped over his mouth, the end blowing in the wind behind his head. Hands firmly stuck in his pockets he looked down shyly at the floor as he paced down the alley, taking a shortcut to his destination. As he neared the gang, his pace slowed somewhat, making a direct course change to head straight past them. The three men stood in his way as he got to within a few feet of them, stopping him dead as he looked up at the thugs blocking his way. They where all taller than him, and almost twice as well built, the soaked man looking at eye level at their chests. They wore mostly leather and denim, adorned my motifs and sown abrasions. The lead man stepped forwards, his well-muscled arm pushing the quiet man in the shoulder.

"You lost little man, or are you just looking for trouble?" he snickered, laughter ringing out from the brainless females behind him.

"One assures thee doth not wish for a confrontation." said the smaller man, shrugging off the thugs meaty hand from his shoulder.

"You say what? Yo Lenn, what this motherfucker just say?" He snorted at one of his accomplices

"Not a clue, lets just beat english outta his white ass" Growled Lenn, his deep voice ringing from the tight alleys graffiti smeared brick walls.

At that the three men grunted, drawing their hunting knives and knuckle- dusters. They stepped forwards towards the motionless little man. For the first time since they had seen him he looked up, showing them his eyes.

"What the fuck?" one choked out before his head left his shoulders. The man on his right swung his metal covered fist at their 'victim' who silently ducked under it, his diminutive stature allowing an effortless dodge. A flash of metal and the huge torso of Lenn split, gore spilling out as his legs buckled and crumpled in a heap as the top half of his corpse hit the floor with a sickeningly wet thud, organs spilling under the feet of the remaining 'Brutha'. He screamed as the small man flicked his weapon in his direction.

"Thou sqealeth like a pig" he spat as his blade bit into the cranium of the crying behemoth, cleaving the top third of his head off like a hot knife through butter.

He fell into the crimson puddle of his fallen brethren, And just as soon as their killer had shown, he was now leaving, hands in pockets and pacing at a normal speed down though the alley. He stepped over the two women he had slain after their other gang members, their severed limbs holding no weapons.

* * *

"Jam Pony messenger service eh?" Logan said standing outside of his destination, watching a variety of types of people ride out and off to deliver their packages, all except his it would seem. He walked in, dodging a black man shouting out "sketchy" at a crowd outside, and walked up to a short man crying out "bip bip bip" to some kids who couldn't care less. He had found a lunatic asylum. 

"Erm, excuse me but do you run this place?" asked Logan and the man span to look at him.

"Sure do, and no we haven't any jobs so get lost, call back next week" snorted Normal, not even bothering to look at the speaker, his nose buried in notes and packages.

"Well see I am one of your customers, a dissatisfied one at that." sighed Logan, he hated having to do this.

Normal looked up, his eyebrow raised. "What's your name?"

"Mr. Anderson" he replied, using the name he had supplied them with. He used this service a lot, adding extra tips for no questions asked.

"You, your Mr. Anderson? Ah Sorry, I didn't know. Err" Normal stuttered in front of his best customer, "I know who has your package" he said quickly.

"MAX!"

* * *

"MAX!" rang out Normal's voice. 

Max was sat in the back just about to set out on her last run. One package left, one place across town and that was it, if he gave her extra she was going to kill him. Sitting up she weaved in between the lockers and into clear view of Normal's cage and.him?

Her pulse quickened immediately, her breath leaving her body. It was him, Logan. She hadn't been to sleep last night but she had spent most of the night on her bike daydreaming about things she could do to him. There he stood wearing a white t-shirt and burgundy chinos. She strode up to him, ignoring Normal completely.

"We meet again." She said simply looking up into his deep blue eyes.

"Indeed we do" he smiled looking down at her. Time seemed irrelevant as Normal opened his mouth. She wore a tight red shirt and ankle skin length black cargo pants. Her face was angelic.

"Max I believe you have a package for this Man" he said, looking between the two. Even he could feel the electricity around the two.

"Erm, I do? Err yeah here" she passed it over to him, to lost in him to notice she was giving a package for a Mr.Anderson to Logan Cale.

"Thanks" Logan forced out, his words not wanting to leave his lips.

The two didn't know what to say, until Max's friend appeared behind her. With out a word she grabbed Max under the arm and dragged her out the door of Jam Pony. Max kept her eyes locked on Logan as long as she could, her puppy dog eyes burning into his before he disappeared out of view as OC dragged her down the street, her traitorous legs carrying her away from him.

He didn't know what had just happened, but he felt something strange inside. She was incredible. He was stood inside his penthouse, although he didn't know how he got there. He shook his head trying to get his head straight. It was getting late, and he had to get ready to go out. He never usually made an effort, but He didn't want to stand out as the scruffy guy, he needed anonymity tonight. He was going to meet a scope out a meeting place for a contact he was going to meet a week later there. He needed to know it was secure. He set off too get a shower before going to Crash.


	4. Whispers of Dreams

**Whispers Of Dreams**

_This is a completely AU fic, no realism included. May contain nuts and batteries sold separately._

* * *

"Boo, you was all ova his ass and Cindy didn't see him arguing" She shouted into the bathroom.

Getting ready for a night out usually took a few hours for the two, but tonight it seemed to be taking longer. Max, ever the perfectionist wouldn't step out the door unless she could kill a man on sight. Cindy was more laid back, not needing so much effort since she was already with her lover Diamond.

"So what if I was, its not illegal. Besides I'm not like that, I hardly know the guy" Max chimed back, feeling smug and cheery after seeing him again.

"That's not what I saw, if he told you to jump you would ask how high Boo. Admit it, you and mystery boy got it goin' on" She sang back. She knew she was winning, Cindy knew these things.

Max was in the bathroom carefully applying make up in their cracked mirror. Her hair was done into short curls and her lips glossed with cherry red balm. Finishing her mascara she gave herself a once over look in the mirror before winking at her self, a job well done. She usually hated wearing make up, but Cindy had effectively made her, and now it was done, it wasn't quite as terrible as she had imagined. 'Defiantly not going to become a regular thing though' She thought.

"Its all in that filthy mind of yours Cindy"

"You trippin' Boo, hot boy and you couldn't even talk so Cindy had to drag your ass away before you blew up the joint. Tomorrow your gonna get his address from Stormin' (Normal) and your gonna go chat his ass up. You game?"

Max hand smoothed out the creases in her shirt, not that it was really big enough to have any. Crash was having its once monthly rock night, and as the theme went so did Max. She wore a tartan mini skirt and a tight white shirt with sleeves rolled up. With her white push up bra on and most her shirt open till two buttons underneath it she looked the epitome of sexy. School girl/ rock chic was a lethal weapon in Max's hands, and she knew it. Walking out she saw Cindy's reaction and knew she had it down.

"I'm game alright" she smirked.

"Damn Boo, what are you trying to do blind every man who sees you tonight?" She joked in her usual sarcastic tone, but just as Cindy always did she reminded Max of what was important. "Don't forget about Hoy boy tomorrow"

"Yeah I know" She said giving a twirl. How could I forget.

* * *

Logan breathed heavily into the spray of water from the showerhead. Even though his legs didn't work, he always had sat in the shower since he was a kid; it was the only place nobody could hear him cry. Although he didn't cry anymore it was still stress relieving, and now he didn't have a choice anyway. After installing the flux-chip from the package from Max in his exoskeleton he hadn't resealed it and so it wasn't waterproof anymore. He was going to have to do a make shift job just in case he spilt a drink down it at this 'Crash' place tonight. A rock night, just like the good old days. 

Running his fingers through his hair his mind was aching from scars he had from his life, he wasn't that happy and his mind was self-torturous when he was depressed. It was because of Max, the girl he hardly knew but couldn't forget. After seeing her twice he had made an idiot out of himself, he hadn't a clue what to say to somebody so... beautiful.

Then after he got in the shower he realised that was it. She was too beautiful. She must already have a guy, nobody so amazing could possibly be single, let alone want a crippled loner like him. But in thinking that he was reminded of how being around her made him feel like he was a different man. Fear disappeared and all he felt was special. Her smile muted any self doubt he had, all there was that feeling in his chest. and he didn't have time to delve any deeper or he would be late. Leaning forwards he turned off the water and he just sat there, watching the drips from his hair roll down his face. Maybe he would go and pay her a visit tomorrow at that Jam Pony place, see how she was doing. Hell, just to be within a hundred yards of her.

Dragging himself up onto the side of the bathtub he tried to spin his legs to the outside and lost his balance falling. It wasn't a long drop and he got a small break fall in, but it was his pride that was hurt.

"Fucking son of a bitch! Argh!" he shouted lashing out at the tiles lining his bathroom wall. His fist connected, busting it open between his smallest finger and the next one in. Blood dripped down the palm of his hand, and he stared at it. His eyes were wide open in terror, his eyes flashing repressed memories to him.

His parents.

The blood.

He was shaking, his head darting around looking for a towel. He found a small flannel and wrapped it around his hand, ridding himself of that horrible image. He only got flashes of it but not a coherent memory. Even so it scared him. A lot.

Dragging a towel to him he dragged himself into his bedroom from the on-suite bathroom before drying off. He would have to bandage that up before he went out, it wasn't big but it was deep. Pulling himself up onto his bed he looked out of his skylight. The moon was glowing and the rain was thick and heavy, something about tonight unsettled him, but he couldn't quite place a finger on what it was. Grabbing his exoskeleton he strapped his legs into it after pulling on some boxers. Tonight was going to be a long night, he sighed. A long night indeed.

* * *

Max was stood out in the line with original Cindy and her girlfriend Diamond. Looking around she saw they were only a few people from the door, and about time too, the wind was blowing hard and the air felt like it was wove with ice. Cindy and her lover where making small talk behind her and Max just watched people, seeing how they mingled in with crowd, how they interacted with their friends and family. Some people she noted, loved to be loud and brash, talking over everybody else, while others hung in the shadows, walking through a crowd without being noticed. Having just divided the crowd into two types, she tried to place herself on either side of the line. The more she thought about it she realised she must be stood on the line. Although strong willed and an occasional wise ass, she never got attached to people, managing to stay isolated through her life. Despite her severely regretted one-nighters when she had been in heat, she had never been with a man, not properly. It wasn't that which caused the ache inside but the knowledge that she would be alone forever. She had to stay off the radar until she was certain that Manticore was finished, until she was sure the crimes she had committed were not in vain.

It was just at this moment when she saw the couple of men in front of her walking away from the door, leaving them next, stepping up she saw why, the bouncer was hanging a sign on the door reading "Full - No admittance".

"Aw come on man!" cried Diamond as she also noticed the sign, her dismay at having cued for a half hour in the icy gale spilling out in a flood of under her breath curses.

"Sorry ladies, the place is full, I'm afraid your too late" said the tall man in the suit. Max had been in this position before and she was pretty sure she knew how to deal with it.

"Come on, baby if you let me and my friends in I'll talk them into letting you watch later", the word gliding off of Max's breathe like silk.

"Watch what?" He asked getting ready to shut the door. Max stood aside and Cindy and Diamond stood there looking at Max, Cindy wondering who she was going to let the guy watch doing what. The she felt Diamonds hand on her cheek turning her face towards her before she Diamond kissed her hard. It was as Max stood aside to let the guy see her friends that she noticed a car driving down the side road/alley of crash, the driver concealed in shadow. "Must be deliveries" she thought shrugging it off.

The Bouncers eyes almost popped out of his head and his hand dropped promptly from the door handle, which Max caught. Strolling in the three ladies walked into the wall of noise that was Crash, Cindy shutting the door behind her shouting "Pervert" out of it before locking the still bewildered bouncer outside.

* * *

Logan pulled into the back alley of crash, vaguely seeing shadows of people cuing outside the front door. As he suspected it would be packed out and full by this time, so he thought he might try the 'VIP' entrance, or the back door as it was more universally known. Driving slowly he came to the small trash ridden car park at the rear of the booming club. Stepping out of his vehicle he had parked in the corner he casually strolled to the back door and looked at the 5-digit lock upon it. Imputing it flawlessly he opened it up and whistled to himself as he strode in. "You can find anything on the internet these days" he thought to himself just as the wall of loud noise that was the music hit him.

* * *

It was a dark night, and yet the moon seemed to illuminate the small outer city school rather well. Four X5's had been told to take down an aggressor by their leader Zack, but he had told them to shoot him, not explaining why he had needed four to accomplish it. He told them to run if he spotted them, and after Eva's skull was crushed by their prey's bare hands, two of them where doing just that.

Jondy and Tinga fled in terror, leaving Ben behind. The two X5's ran like the wind, blurring across the school playground like women possessed. Despite their training and conditioning this hunter scared the shit out of the both of them, only Ben seemed unaffected, he seemed to display the same aggressive verging on insane lust to fight.

Ben stood in the shadows, his eyes scanning for their predator. His heart was pounding; sweat from his anxious brow ran down his face. Seeing him to his right he stared in silent awe. He was only short, and to the unsuspecting person an easy target for aggression, but as Zack had warned them, he was unstoppable, invincible, as it would seem. But Ben didn't believe that, nobody could take him, he was too good. Telling Tinga And Jondy to run was so he could hog all the glory for taking this guy apart. He saw his target move. The short man stood in the wind, the scarf over his mouth darting in the gale, his trench coat's edges flailing around his legs. Ben watched as from within his trench coat his withdrew a sword, a long thin katana. Ben saw this as cowards move, and watched as the short assassin looked towards him, his eyes blurring in the darkness, their red lights seemingly igniting in their sockets.

"What the fuck?" whispered Ben as he stood up, knowing his position had been made as the opponent pointed his blade towards him despite its wielders eyes looking away again.

"Come forth and meet thy end" He whispered like gravel down the wind. His blade glimmered in the dim light of the moon

"You're going to pay for killing my sister you bastard" Ben growled before lunging through the air at the short warrior.

"One hath paid more than thou can'st imagine" He said bluntly as he side stepped his air born foe, flicking his sword once, so quick it was barely visible. He watched Ben hit the floor face first, clutching his throat which was gushing with crimson life, pooling around him as it left.

He stamped down on the X5s back and hung over him as he bled to death, watching him squirm as the lights faded in his eyes.

* * *

Max watched as diamond creamed Cindy at pool for the third time, laughing at Cindy's excuses.

"This here be rigged, you wasn't dis good last time we played!" Cindy shrugged it off, "I'll take you this time".

Max noticed the beer was running dry and nodded to her friend she was off to the bar to get more. Crash was crammed; full of moshers and hard men, whores and normal people, and many others it was like a culture fair. Max walked around the dance floor, knowing quite a few eyes were following her around.

"Men" she thought, as she got to the bar, but she was glad she was appealing, every woman craves knowledge she is sexy.

"Hey barkeep, another pitcher please" she said as she slid the container down the bar to his waiting hands. She turned and leaned against the bar, resting her elbows on the bar and surveying the scene. The dance floor was a mass of violently writhing bodies, each one looked individual to her, and the guys around staring at her like a piece of meat looked all the same. Arseholes.

"Whiskey, oldest you have" came a familiarly dreamy voice from next to her. Looking to her left she saw Logan Cale, looking somewhat sullen. He was adorned in a tight fitting black long sleeved T-shirt and dark blue jeans, half his hand was also bandaged up, his hair spiky and stubble ever present. Max had only had enough beer to feel slightly drunk, but she seemed top have lost the speech impediment his presence gave her.

"We have to stop meeting like this" she purred into his ear, her body pressing against his back. She had dressed to thrill, and she would be damned if it went to waste when the literal guy of her dreams was sat next to her. He only lightly tilted his head to catch a slight glimpse of her, his eyes illuminating when he saw her.

"Now why would we want to do that?" He whispered back.

Game On.

* * *

Jondy and Tinga leaned against the wall of a building several miles from the school, panting as they prepared to figure out their next move. Before either of them could move a blur from the roof above them landed in front of them, his eyes alight and the scarf around his lower face dancing in the uplifting wind.

"Rumandello at thy service" he spat before decapitating both of them with one fell swoop.

Running his sword back into his long coat he turned away from the corpses and walked away down the empty street, throwing an incendiary device over his shoulder casually, igniting the bodies as he disappeared into the empty night.

* * *

Max sat on the bar stool next to Logan, who had turned to her, and max loved the way his face conveyed the lack of belief that anybody could look so sexy. She knew he was taking in her every detail and so she ran her hand over her cleavage and flicked her hair back, enticing his eyes to explode with awe.

"Is it me or is it hot in here?" she teased, they seemed to have this little word play thing going on, and she knew how to work it to her advantage.

"Something's hot in here" he smirked. He was fully aware there was a song or something like that, but it looked to be before her years and he didn't want to baffle her, but he was losing his ability to think and the feeling of being free was over taking him, she was incredible, how she made him feel and how she looked. Spellbinding.

"So, here with your girlfriend?" Max asked the one question she feared the answer of, it needed to be done though.

"I'm flying solo I'm afraid, How about you?"

"Please, there isn't a guy in here good enough for me!" She bragged, giving it the tinge of sarcasm she needed to give him the hint.

"Is that so?" he got out before he saw a whisky placed in front of him, and he paid for both his and the pitcher Max had just been given.

"You don't need to do that, but thanks" She smiled genuinely at him, he was as kind as he was attractive. Max didn't know why she was behaving like this with him, she had a choice of dozens of guys tonight and yet this one man was making her warm inside. They both looked at each other and Max spotted Cindy across the room and reminded herself she needed to get the beer there.

"Be right back" She said placing her hand on his shoulder, "Wait for me?"

"Of course" he replied, "Always".

"Yo Boo, is that hot boy you with over there?" Chuckled Cindy As Max waltzed over with the beer

"Indeed it is, and I'm going back over there to talk to him" She sang, Cindy had rarely seen her so cheerful.

"Chat him up you mean" added Diamond taking the pitcher from Max

"Same thing" Max sighed dreamily as she turned and walked back towards the bar, spying another woman talking to Logan. "Fucking bitch" she thought, "No way".

Max walked over just in time to hear the red head ask him if he was here with anybody. She was tall, slender with blazing red hair. "Definite whore" Max thought, before realising she was ready to kill somebody just for talking to him. Odd.

"Who are you talking too babe?" she questioned him, her voice caressing his ears with its soft sexy low intonation. She wrapped her arms around his neck looking with daggers at the red head, whom backed off mumbling about needing to get back to her fiancé.

"Thank Christ you showed up" Logan sighed

"Who was that" she asked at the sound of familiarity in his voice

"An old girlfriend, once a bitch always a bitch I guess, she came to brag" He brought his hand up to hers and brought her around to the seat she had occupied before.

"It looked to me like she still had the hots for you" Max grimaced at the idea, it made her sick

"Well she can go to hell, besides who needs her when I've got you?" He smiled, pushing his luck, but he could see she wasn't objecting to anything he did or said.

"What makes you think you have me at all?" before he could answer a big burly guy walked up, muscle bound and about 6'3.

"Fancy taking a ride with a real man?" He grunted in a deep accent.

"Can't you see I'm busy? Take a hike" she said not even bothering to look at him before shooing him away with her hand. The man retreated in disgrace to his circle of taunting mates across the room. Logan looked at her and smiled broadly.

"Such a beautiful lady as yourself must be used to that" He stated as she watched him finish the last of his drink.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, but at least you aren't blind to the truth". She felt her heart pang as he smiled at one of her wiseass remarks. Logan was still in perpetual shock of how sexy she looked when she stood up and reached out to take his hand. He didn't say a word as she dragged him to the dance floor.

Once there Logan realised he wasn't completely drunk, and that he couldn't dance. "Ah fuck", he thought, "Now I'm screwed"

Max seeing his hesitation pushed him back to a pole in the centre of the floor, with him leaning against it she got her groove on. Winding her body in to the bass of the tracks her eyes if not shut were locked on Logan's, who couldn't help but try and control his bodily reactions to her. Finally giving into the alcohol and irresistible sexual attraction between him and her he reached out and dragged her closer to him, which she didn't resist in the slightest. Running her hands up and down his chest as she wound down him his hands stroked any naked flesh he could find, trying not to stare too blatantly at her breasts when she was below his eye level. He was loosing control.

Max was lost in the music, but even more so in the man she was dancing on. His chest was tight and firm through the thin material he wore and she was aware of the fact he was trying to suppress the effect she was obviously having on him, how cute. Going for it she got all up in his personal space, her aching breasts rubbing against his chest as she gyrated herself on his thigh, she couldn't help but gasp at the sudden pleasure contact with him gave her as his hands ran over the bare flesh of the lower back. It felt like some kind of brace was attached to his leg, but she shrugged it off.

Cindy was on the stairs to leave with diamond when she spotted Max all over her 'hot boy'. Diamond saw her as well.

"She's just fucking him with his clothes on" she remarked

"Lets hope it doesn't stay that way" Cindy said ready to step out, "Max deserves a break so I hope she gets in there"

Max could feel him against her leg, he was ready to go and she was hot and bothered herself, but she wanted to play a little bit more. She was pleasantly surprised that he made the first move towards giving in to the electricity between them, her hands where roaming over him, flicking underneath his shirt to run over his taught chest or down his toned arms when he leaned down and feather soft nipped her ear with his teeth before licking it slowly. Max could feel herself wet against him, and for the first time she moved slightly into his ministrations and as he again softly licked her ear she gasped quietly and ground against him. Something snapped in her when she heard him moan. Snaking a hand up behind his head she forcefully brought his lips to hers in a crushing kiss, passion exploding in both of them. The two person inferno in the middle of a writhing mass of oblivious bodies became aware that they now needed solitude to advance further.

As their lips moved across each other's Max became painfully aware she needed him. Reluctantly breaking the kiss she ran her hand down to over his groin, whispering on her breath "Where's your car?"

Logan grabbed her by the hand and dragged her towards the back of the club, showing her out of the back door. The way to his Aztek was full of non- incidental strokes and full on making out against his car. Opening the door for her he jumped in and pulled out of the alley and started off on the short journey home. His concentration was broken countless times as Max licked his neck and made a show of where her hands ran over her barely clothed body.

Finally arriving at Fogle towers, Logan practically dived out of the car, let Max out and then locked it and was pinning her up against the elevator wall all in record time. His head felt dizzy and there was barely any blood there at all so he wasn't thinking at all, so Max had to open take the keys from his hand in order to open his front door, which she herself found rather an annoyingly complicated task in her current condition.

With the door shut behind them all hell broke loose. Pushing him up against the nearest wall she pulled his shirt off him and started to lick and bite her way down his chest before undoing his belt. Logan didn't want her to see the exo-skeleton just yet and so he dragged her up and pulled her to his bedroom, throwing her down on his bed. He kicked off his shoes and watched as she removed her top and bra, her breasts removing the thin wisp of breath he had left. Walking over to her she kneeled on the bed and undid his pants as he kneaded her chest avidly. Logan lay down on the bed as his pants pooled around his ankles, and he powered down the walking apparatus and pulled it off himself. Max too far gone in lust to care just ignored it and greedily ripped his boxers down his legs to be thrown somewhere behind her.

Being naked in front of a woman wasn't a position Logan had been in for a few years, but he was glad she seemed impressed. He was wondering on how to proceed when she hungrily sucked him into her mouth, bringing forth a husky groan from him as she milked him hard. Knowing he wasn't going to last long with her going like that he pulled her up and kissed her hard and passionately as he undid the fastenings on her skirt and left her in a soaked thong. Pulling it off Max opened her legs to his warm hand as she devoured his mouth, Logan running his hand over the inside of her thighs before feeling the heat of her moist core on his palm. Running his two fingers over her he slid them into her, shallow at first, then he buried them, Max whimpering into his mouth as he did. She started to moan and gasp as he manipulated her and before long she bit down on his neck as she came. Seeing that he was still all to horny Max still needed him, and so she straddled him, sitting up and then impaling herself upon him, her eyes shut in ecstasy as he filled her.

Looking up at her as she started to move on him he only wish he could grind up into her, but he didn't need too. She was so tight and wet it was only a matter of minutes before he groaned loudly and grasped the sheets as he spilled deep inside her, and only moments later Max squealed her orgasm, helped along by her lovers expert hands manipulating her pleasure point. Collapsing on top of him broken and sated Max allowed herself to sleep, giving in to the darkness enveloping her world.


	5. And then I rolled a five and a two

**And Then I Rolled A Five And A Two**

_Disclaimer: Anything you could sue me for isn't mine_

This is an AU story

* * *

The church was a small forsaken building outside of the city, surrounded by foreboding dead trees and rotting wooden fences. The gravestones crumbled and those buried long forgotten. Only one being sought solace within its walls, sat on the floor in a dark corner at the back of the building.

The sunlight shone through the broken windows, casting vivid colours across the floor due to the remnants of a shattered stained glass arch. He looked at the colours, watching the way they moved as the clouds crept over the sun. After such a long time of having nothing but pain he always found himself getting pleasure from the simplest of sources, the noise of birds, architecture, all the stupid things he would never have paid attention to before. In the pitch black of the corner he was in the only light came from his own eyes, their fiery glow licking around his face. He sat against a large wooden cross leaning into the corner. He thought it ironic, because by all means any contact with such an effigy should ignite him anyway, so his eye's flame like aura suited the scene well. His legs where crossed and he stared at his ragged boots, the steel caps showing through from being over worn, most off his clothes were rags, the scarf over his mouth itself was sown together from about 3 different pieces of material. His tan trench coat was frayed at the edges and the breast pocket hung off as the stitches had been torn, but this mattered not to him because everybody who came to pay attention to these details he had slaughtered.

The big wooden double doors of the church splintered as they flew into the rows, the explosion more than sufficient to allow entrance. But entrance wasn't why they had blown the doors off, that was the distraction. He had heard their vehicles driving up, heard their footsteps, whispered orders, those X7's slipping in through the back door, everything. They had come to collect their specimen again; he had lost count of how many attempts he had been made to endure. No, wait, endure? That made it sound like killing was a chore. No, no, it was what brought him the most pleasure, because it was what he is, a killer. Sitting still in the same position with his arms crossed he moved his head up burning holes into the eyes of the 5 X7's surrounding him. They looked only about 12 years old, surrounding him in a semi circle. They had never known an enemy they couldn't take down with ease, until now.

"Specimen 57 on your feet, you are to accompany us back to Manticore" the center X7 said in a toneless drone.

"Doth thee really think thou'st will comply?" he said cockily, a slight almost unnoticeable gleam appearing in his enflamed eyes.

"Specimen 57, if you..."

"Thy namest Rumandello" he butted in, he always had hated this verbal collar they gave him.

"Specimen 57, on your feet or we will use the necessary force" he droned again, the X7's face emotionless and dead.

"Be'eth that an invitation?" he laughed as the furthest right X7 dropped to the floor crying in agony, both his feet severed at the ankle by their targets sword. Moving like a blur the 4 remaining X7's spread out in the small construction, scanning for their target who had moved so quickly they barely saw him disappear into the shadows. They began to panic when they heard a sinister cackle ring out, and spooking an X7 was not the easiest of tasks. They're eyes darted around, scanning the area with advanced military precision. It did them no good.

* * *

Life bled into Logan like a blood transfusion, is eyes flickered in the blinding morning sun. His head was ringing like a large alcohol fuelled bell, and his memory of the previous night hazy at best. A face was piecing together in his head, an attractive face. Audrey? His redheaded ex girlfriend? No, that wasn't it, all thought he did have the misfortune to have seen 'it' last night. Lying on the verge of regaining consciousness, Logan strained his mental vision at the person residing behind his mind fog. Max? Who? That? Her? When? Shit! His eyes bolted open in mute distress, did he really? Nah, no way...

Turning his head ever so slowly to his right he looked across the empty expanse of white bed. Nobody there. He sighed in relief, or was it disappointment? He remembered most of it now, but there was no signs of her anywhere, it just looked like Logan had had a rather large spasm in his bedroom, the sheets thrown everywhere and his exoskeleton laying on the floor next to the bed in a heap of steel. No she had been here, but she had already gone. His mind clearing more and more by the minute, he had two questions on his mind.

1: How could a cripple like him pull her?

2: Was that barcode for real? Was she one of those kids that escaped in '09?

* * *

Hearing cries of agony echo from within the building Zack and colonel Lydecker watched the church, Zack grimacing at the fate of the X7's with his enhanced vision. Lydecker knew what was happening to them, he trained 57 to do this, slaughter without thought. Ever since that small boy was brought in crying and scared half to death...

Zack stepped forward; he couldn't let this go on any longer. Just about to speed into combat he felt his superior's hand on his shoulder.

"No my boy, I have told you. This is what needs to be done." Stated Lydecker emotionlessly.

"But he's killing them all, he needs to be stopped, that was the last group of X7's in Manticore. We are all but out of troops sir!" urged Zack, knowing that after 6 years of trying to capture specimen 57 and his unpredictable attacks on the Manticore HQ his group of X5's were the only enhanced soldiers left in the whole establishment.

"My dear Zack, I am so sorry for this. But I lied when I told you you're the best"

"Sir?"

From out of the shadows of the church blurred a flash of silver in the corner of Zack's eye. He turned to see what it was and that was all he saw before he dropped to the floor. Lydecker looked down at the extended katana protruding from between Zack's forehead. Out of the doorway of the church came Rumandello, or specimen 57 as he was once known. Walking straight towards Lydecker who was stood next to his hummer surrounded by his elite human bodyguards, Rumandello stamped on the corpse's chest before retrieving his blade.

"This must endth soon" He growled as he stared into Lydecker's eyes.

"I'll tell her your coming"


	6. Like Livin Wid Out Love Wasnt ard Enuf

**Like Livin Wid Out Love Wasnt ard Enuf**

_Disclaimer: Anything you could sue me for isn't mine_

This is an AU story

* * *

Life bled into Logan like a blood transfusion, is eyes flickered in the blinding morning sun. His head was ringing like a large alcohol fuelled bell, and his memory of the previous night hazy at best. A face was piecing together in his head, an attractive face. Audrey? His redheaded ex girlfriend? No, that wasn't it, all thought he did have the misfortune to have seen 'it' last night. Lying on the verge of regaining consciousness, Logan strained his mental vision at the person residing behind his mind fog. Max? Who? That? Her? When? Shit! His eyes bolted open in mute distress, did he really? Nah, no way...

Turning his head ever so slowly to his right he looked across the empty expanse of white bed. Nobody there. He sighed in relief, or was it disappointment? He remembered most of it now, but there was no signs of her anywhere, it just looked like Logan had had a rather large spasm in his bedroom, the sheets thrown everywhere and his exoskeleton laying on the floor next to the bed in a heap of steel. No she had been here, but she had already gone. His mind clearing more and more by the minute, he had two questions on his mind.

1: How could a cripple like him pull her?

2: Was that barcode for real? Was she one of those kids that escaped in '09?

It had to be, she had to have been one of the two kids that escaped that night, he was sure of it. Genetically enhanced killing machines, and this one he guessed was a slight bit feline, at least she purred like a cat anyway, he remembered that all right. The other of the two was believed to be dead, or at least that's what he had heard. So much for the urban myth, it was true. He had found one of the elusive X series, but she had left him. Hang on, shouldn't that be 'it' and 'got away'? Saying that, he didn't exactly plan on keeping her, not like that anyway. Wait...was he wishing she had stayed? Get a grip Logan, you don't have a relationship with a killing machine.

Having raised and got to the kitchen in his sweats and exo, Logan opened the unit door and retrieved an earl grey teabag and his favourite mug, his only relic of his childhood. It was a simple black mug; emblazoned with the Autobots symbol, "Robots In Disguise" he hummed to himself as he completed the brew. He jumped up onto the stainless steel counter and looked across his domain. She had made quite an impact on him, but he had known that since he had met her during that investigation in the free housing and corrupt cop. All had ended well except that he thought he would never see her again, until he found out she had been delivering packages to his pigeon hole for god knows how long she had been working at that Jam Pony messenger place. God had a wicked humour to him. But despite all these chance encounters and that eventuality that had been last night's actions, she hadn't stayed around to even slap him. She had just disappeared.

Maybe he should feel used, but he didn't. Sat there he just stared across his room and out of his penthouse's window, across the city in which she was. So close yet so far, just like him from the city. Living in it for years and being relatively unknown had its benefits but mostly made him so lonely he was almost suicidal. So for that one night in the crowd, to be picked out of it by the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his life and to experience a connection on some level, it was gutting to wake up and find that connection broken without even so much as a "Fuck off" or "Goodbye".

Maybe that's how he should think of it, as one night. Sure girls her age were entitled to one-night stands, and he had just been in the right place at the right time. If only it felt that coincidental. If only he would stop thinking about her. Maybe...

Iknow where she works, where she lives and where she hangs out. Why shouldI let it end at one night? Jumping off the counter he walked towards the door and grabbed his coat, putting his hand on the door handle before shutting his eyes and dropping his head.

You should leave it at one night because if she wanted you or anything to do with you then she wouldn't have bailed before you woke up. His hand slid from the handle and he turned back, walking to his computer, walking towards his self inflicted prison.

* * *

Cindy cradled her friend's head as she lay on the couch, the shaking subsiding now. Max lay on her old sofa in her apartment, having felt the seizure coming on as she woke in that man's apartment. She wasn't sure if she had wanted to stay to be used one more time and then kicked out or to leave early and not get another chance to see his eyes. But no matter which she had wanted to pick the decision was made for her by her fucked up genetics, the last thing she wanted to do was have a seizure in a guys bed whom she hardly knew but just made love to. "Made love"? what the flying fuck was she thinking? Shagged, fucked, screwed... all more appropriate by far, but seemingly ill fitting. Anyways enough of that crap, she now had to decide how to get out of work.

"Its fine boo, Diamond said she would do your shift today, let you kick it back here, you must be tired" she smirked at her joke

"Take a hike Cindy" she said as she struggled but managed to sit up. "Thanks a bunch Diamond, I think I'm going to sleep all day"

"That's what you get when you don't sleep all night" Diamond said from their kitchen area, putting deliberate emphasis on 'sleep'. "Ah go to hell both of you" Max complained as she stumbled off into her bedroom. The two lovers left for Jam Pony and Max collapsed in a heap onto her bed, moaning about stupid brain malfunctions.

* * *

Lydecker walked into the office of Madame X, standing in front of her desk she stared a hole in him before speaking. The room was a dark, lit by two spot lights which only illuminated her desk, leaving her free to sit back and disappear from view completely.

"You yet again failed to bring in 57 didn't you?" she asked already knowing the answer. It had been the same for a long time.

"Yes mam" he stated bluntly.

"And let me guess, he killed every X7 and X5 with you?" She said admiring her fingernails.

"Yet again" He smirked. She looked up

"What's so funny? What happened this time that doesn't happen every time?" she actually showed interest now.

"He's coming for you. For us, for Manticore." Lydecker spoken softly these words, and just as had expected he head gunshots ringing around the building and the screams of the last X series in their possession.

"Oh shit, we have to get out of here!" She panicked, her usual stony façade shattering. She started the download of a file onto minidisk on her computer, waiting a second before it popped out and she threw it at Donald. "Keep this on you, it's the only copy of 57's origins and purpose" she said before she ran for the door. Lydecker stepped back into the corridor and looked out the window.

Outside the fence had been chopped down in a controlled manner, only a large enough hole for one figure to move through, but the carnage on the inside of the fence wasn't controlled at all. The scared guards had released the early X series, or nomalies as his kids had once called the. These warped and insane creatures lunged at Specimen 57 with a blood lust unmatched by any opponents 57 had known, but he still slaughtered them mercilessly. His hatred for Manticore's creations had not dimmed at all since his escape all those years ago. Deck grinned.

"The prodigal son returns"

* * *

Max had gotten dressed and fed herself with scraps from the kitchen. Now she stood up and looked at her bike. She wanted to go to him, she felt like she need to go, the sickly feeling you get when you long for nothing but the simple presence of a particular human being. But she knew by his penthouse he was probably a rich playboy only interested in her for the good sex she knew she gave. It had been a while since she had been with anybody fully, but it wasn't a sex thing. The best wayshe could put it was she wanted closure, she needed it. To prove to herself that he wasn't what she had been fantasising about since she laid eyes upon him, he wasn't the one she so felt he was. He was a rich playboy who didn't care about anybody but himself.

She had the day off work, she had enough fuel in her baby to go anywhere within the city, so why was she rooted to the spot in fear? The very reason she needed to go was why she couldn't bear the thought of it. What if that feeling he gave her was false, what if all he was was a rich bastard who just fucked and moved on? Could she take the fact she could be that wrong about somebody? Moving towards her bike she started to wheel it out of her apartment and towards the street. Max Guevara was a good judge of character, or at least she hoped she was.

* * *

Logan sat at his computer emotionally exhausted and sighed heavily. He was staring at a security camera photograph of her that he had removed from the Internet, for her own safety. Too many people would give too much for a genetically enhanced killer, a chimera. He was pretty sure he was right, all his sources and data pointed towards a girl of roughly her age being one of the two that escaped the 'Manticore' thingy in '09. He looked at his busted hand, it was healing well but he still felt like a git for loosing his temper. He sat and stared at the picture, before turning it off and turning on his video leak equipment. Sitting up and looking into his camera he started to talk about a morgue tech that was selling the property and more sickeningly organs and identities of those whom had the misfortune to be dead in his general area. It was a very good job that these videos were recorded two hours prior to broadcast, because somebody had just appeared behind him, staring intently at his eyes on the screen as the coloured boarders and text framed them.

Ok... so much for a great judge of character, I never saw that one coming. The great Eyes Only, protector of the down trodden was some jackass in a tower. He turned around and looked at her in mute terror. This was going to be fun, I can hold this over him.

"I've never met a crusader for the innocent and downtrodden before, let alone slept with one" Max started, before being cut off.

"I've never met a chimera either, so I guess that makes us even" He stated in his defence, or was that defiance?

Max was going to say something, but couldn't quite remember what it was. What? How did he know? This was so not a good thing!

"Coffee?" he asked brushing past her to the kitchen, while her eyes never moved from their position looking at his monitor. Stalemate.

* * *

Dozens of genetic freaks lay dead, and he was enjoying it so much. Pity he had whittled their numbers so much over the years, but sweet things like their destruction needed to be drawn out and savoured. Rumandello stalked the corridors and barracks of Manticore, his own personal hell turned hunting ground. The lights were flickering and he had cut down everybody he had come across so far, so what joy it gave him when his main target ran around the corner. He lowered his blade.

Renfro was running for her life, as fast as she could she was running on instinct. Rounding a corner she saw the door, and felt a burning pain in her chest. Looking down she realised she had ran onto a sword, his sword. She screamed. She screamed remembering how she had been told this day would come, by this creature in front of her when he was still a boy. He had warned her but she still went ahead with the procedure...

"Greetings my dear," he whispered into her ear as she slid further down his sword and towards him.

"Remember me?"


	7. Ash Fault

**Ash Fault**

_Disclaimer: Anything you could sue me for isn't mine_

This is an AU story

* * *

"Don't do this James" coughed Renfro, blood weeping from the side of her mouth. She was body to body with him his blade sticking out of her back glimmering in the flickering barrack lights.

"Tis not thy name! Thy namest be Rumandello! And I told thou did I not, if thou flicked that switch thy would kill thee" He spat in her face, the fiery neon glow of his eyes swirling in a violent flame.

"Rumand... You know I had no choice, I only..." She pleaded until he twisted his blade in her stomach and her scream could be heard through out the Manticore building.

"Vengeance hath come for thee" he whispered in her ear in a silky smooth tone, before ripping his blade up her body and free, cutting her in two from her waist.

"Oh how the mighty hast fallen" he looked down at the gore puddle around his feet, before moving on, to finish his business here, to finish them all.

* * *

"Coffee?"

"Err yeah, I guess. Seems we both know each other dirty little secrets eh? What are you going to do? Put me in the circus?" She mocked, ready yet not so willing to break his neck if she saw him give a signal to somebody hidden. Maybe he was with Manticore...

"Milk?"

"Lots. I mean, I could expose you ya know, and every criminal in Seattle would come knocking, so this isn't as straight forwards as you think" she continued. She held her position on the opposite side of his kitchen island than him.

"Sugar?"

"No thanks. What do you know about me then? Are you really going to play games with a girl who could break you in half at the flick of an eyelid? Hey are you even listening? Forget the coffee already!"

He placed the cup in front of her and looked back at his own. "If you didn't notice I am already snapped in half"

Max stuttered before she regained her composure. "Don't give me that pity bullshit, what do you intend to do with what you know about me?"

"Not much, just try and make sure I stay the only one who knows"

"Oh and why is that, you feel special coz you fucked a freak?" she spat, sometimes the cat in her was more obvious.

"No, just trying to keep you safe"

"Why would you want to do that? What do you get out of it?" she quizzed him, still not believing he was being straight up.

"Hey you said it yourself, "crusader for the innocent and downtrodden", and unless I am so severely misguided I do believe you are innocent" he finished, wanting to add a one liner about her sexual antics and her lack of innocence in that aspect, but now wasn't the time for all that shit.

"I don't believe you. Why wouldn't you try and profit from this?" she now believed he was for real, but couldn't see why.

"I don't need the money, I just want you to be safe" he said sitting on a stool opposite her holding his mug. She sat likewise. "Now the question is what do you intend to do? Sell me to the highest bidder?"

"Give me a good reason why I would want to do that?"

"Money? Power? Pretty much whatever floats your boat" He sipped.

"I'm not that shallow you know, even freaks have hearts". At hearing this his went out to her, and he looked into her eyes.

"Never refer to yourself as a freak Max" There it was again, he had used her first name and he felt like a prat.

"Thanks Logan" she said with a smirk. Now he felt better.

* * *

Rumandello rounded the corner and came to the basement theatre. It hadn't changed since he was a kid. He looked at the torture equipment, the machines, and Lydecker.

"Welcome back" he smiled as 57 stepped down the 5 steps and into the dimly lit room. His feet still dripped with her blood, leaving small prints on the concrete floor.

"Welcome indeed" He spat, his hand clenching around his blade handle as tight as he could. This is where he had lived his life for years after he was taken from his parents, a child, tortured and experimented on all for something he didn't even know he had in him. Something that would prove to be those scientists undoing.

"You want to know how many got away don't you?" Lydecker asked, knowing full well he was the only person left alive from Manticore, the only member of staff or creation. The rest were dead, and he smiled knowing he had disposed of the bitch.

After the scientists had unleashed his "gift" he broke them with his bare hands, the hands of a boy. He remembered drinking some of their blood to nourish himself, he had been fed and watered as little as possible as part of his torture. They wanted to know where the other half was, but he didn't even know he had the half they possessed within him lying dormant. He stared at Lydecker.

"Two got away, but we caught and destroyed one. So that leaves X5-452, you only have one target left" Lydecker said before walking towards his puppet. Rumandello was conditioned not to hurt Lydecker, and so he just stared down at him as he drew a gun. He pointed it at 57's chest and pulled the trigger.

* * *

"So, I umm, we err, well ya know" she mumbled "Last night". She wasn't good at this. She had never seen a man again after she had slept with them, she fled.

"Yeah, I know I erm..." Logan could see she was struggling for the words to say, but he just didn't know what words he needed to struggle with.

* * *

The satisfying sound of a bullet tearing through flesh was heard, and then the clang of metal on metal.

"So they were right," Deck said looking at the hole he had just created in 57's worn trench coat, "You have become invulnerable to ballistics. Impressive my boy" he said as he walked past him. He turned around to see 57 looking at him, the look in his enflamed eyes worrying Lydecker as he realised what he was going to do. The blade only entered a few inches, but it was enough. Withdrawing his sword from Lydecker's eye he watched the only person who had ever showed sympathy towards him drop to the floor dead and slide down the steps to his feet.

"Everybody must die, that includes thee"

* * *

Logan heard the sirens outside his building as the fire engines rushed past, if that's what you could call the vans with make shiftwater cannons used in post pulse Seattle.

Max and Logan both looked at each other quizzically, knowing it was unusual they bothered to use their sirens in the city, unless they were going through the out of city check point.

Logan walked over to his computer and within seconds had a picture of a raging inferno in a forest.

"Manticore" Max stated bluntly.

"That's where you were...born?" he asked, not wanting to use any kind of product related words concerning her conception.

"That's the one"

"Why is it burning?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, I haven't seen the place since I was a kid, I avoided their free nostalgia tour offers"

"Wait, who is that?" Logan zoomed in the video feed to an en-shadowed figure on the outskirts of the shot, disappearing into the forest.

"I have no idea, but it looks to me like he started it" he said puzzled as to how this could have happened, had security really slackened so much since her days locked in that building that was now a large funeral pyre?

Logan switched off his monitor when the feed got disconnected. "I think this warrants my attention" he said spinning around is his chair to face her.

"Your not going anywhere near that place without me" she said bluntly. "If this has anything to do with them moving shop I need to know about it"

"Fine, we set off tomorrow morning about 5am, the curfew is on so I suggest you get back hereby 10pm tonight and stay in the spare room" he said. He shot himself in the head mentally, was that the right thing to say? Was that respectful or insulting?

"Fine, I'll be back at erm... do you mind if I get something to eat here too?" She was pushing her luck, she just had no food and had this strange feeling that she would like to come around earlier than 10, as if that long away wasn't good..

"Make it around 7 then, so I'll see you later" he said standing up.

"Yeah, that you will"

Both of them felt the awkwardness of the situation. The attraction alone could not explain how this was going, she was coming for dinner and staying the night with someone who knew what she was and didn't fear her or want her dead. He wanted her to be safe. She walked to the door and let herself out, their last eye contact betraying the mutual longing for her swift return. Logan didn't know what had just happened but he knew this, if she didn't come back he would still be feeling this aching loss in his stomach at her departure for the rest of his life.


	8. My Frequency is my Pain

**My Frequency Is My Pain**

_Disclaimer: Anything you could sue me for isn't mine_

This is an AU story

* * *

James... He hadn't heard that for years. He had three names, Rumandello, a characters name from his childhood, which is why he talked in such a strange way just like his childhood hero. Specimen 57 was the code Manticore gave him upon his arrival after being kidnapped, since he was the 57th kid brought in the search for what that bitch had called "Her ticket into the inner circle". And last but not least James, his real name, the one given to him by his parents. He was sick of hearing them all, he wanted one alias, but he was no longer sure which one he wanted to use...

He sat on a fallen tree, the streams of white hitting his face through the foliage. He could smell the fire on the wind, the smell of history alight, the smell of hellfire. So he had one more target left, this 452. He had no idea who he was, but when he found this X5, he would make him pay for being the only one arrogant enough to escape him.

* * *

Logan sat on the end of his spare bed. He knew she was going to stay here tonight, right across the hall from him. So what? Loads of people had stayed in this room. Even Asha had stayed in this room and he had slept with her countless times. Then why did this feel different?

He had tidied the place up, giving it more attention than he usually gave his own. If only he knew why he was acting like this, and why since she had opened that door to him dressed in a towel he couldn't stop obsessing about her. Why every time he now looked at a woman he was reminded about how she put them all to shame in every single aspect. She was flawless to him. But then again, a man probably made her, if not a group of them, so why would she be anything but perfect?

He lay back with a flop, looking at his watch. It was only 3pm. He had to start doing dinner at 5.30, so what the fuck was he going to do until then? He had tried doing his work but he couldn't spell anything, he was one of those people that typed what they were thinking at the time, so all his emails and so on just read "Max, Sexy, Dinner, Orange juice". Okay, the last one was because he was thirsty at the time, but the rest was blatantly obvious to him. He missed her. He missed somebody he hardly knew. He must be insane, or maybe he was...nah, bullshit. He didn't believe in first sight, he always believed love came from knowing a person, and that only lust came on first sight. Whatever it was, he wasn't sure but it sure was weird.

Now he just had to think of what to have for dinner.


	9. Storm Warning

**Storm Warning**

_Disclaimer: Anything you could sue me for isn't mine_

This is an AU story

* * *

Max stood outside Fogle towers, looking up at the light shimmering from the highest window, sure enough she would be up there soon. With him. Alone with him. The thought put up her defences, but she suspected that they would melt into that soft feeling upon seeing him. She hadn't met anybody who did that before, it was as if being with him made her feel secure, safe almost. Blinking she looked at the entrance, wondering what had come over her. She looked down and saw the reflection of the sky in a puddle, underneath the dimly lit streetlight next to her. Turning her head to the sky she could see the omen, as the clouds cracked and the rain began to beat down on the city, it became clear that a Storm was coming.

Not wishing to be drenched by the heavy Seattle downpour Max hurried inside the building and swiftly into the elevator to Logan's penthouse. Upon her way up she thought of the many ways in which she could appear, of what impression she wanted to give.

"Hey Max, how did you get in?"

"I picked the lock, figured you would be busy cooking and I didn't want you burning my dinner"

Hmm, maybe a bit too 'Feed me, feed me now'. Nah, don't like that one much.

"Hey Max" he says as he opens the door to her.

"Hey Logan, you wouldn't believe what happened to me today! I was..."

Nah, seems to 'me me me', plus nothing actually happened today. Damn

"Hey Max" he says as he opens the door to her

"Fuck me" Said simply, it requires a simple answer, yet not a verbal one.

Dragging her into his arms he devoured her mouth as she let her eager hands roam his body, being pushed against the now kicked shut door Max tore his shirt off much like he had just done to her, and scraped her nails over his back and shoulders as he pleasured her chest with his mouth and ripped off her underwear with his free hand. Having been lifted up she wrapped her legs around his waist as he lowered her onto him, hard and deep. Biting down on his shoulder he panted heavily as she cried out at the repeat of the process, grinding upon him as she... wondered what the fuck am I thinking?

Max snapped too, breathing heavily as the doors opened with the ping of arrival. Stepping out she decided she needed a few minutes in the corridor to cool herself off and to collect her thoughts. To her that was completely out of character, unless of course she was going into heat again. Usually she would panic, but her heat cycle wasn't yet due. Despite that unanimously being her favoured entrance it was not the one she was going to take, she wouldn't take any. She would stop this and just be herself, which was a pleasure she could only really enjoy alone with him, the only person now alive who knew of her Manticore ties.

Besides, this was the first time she had fantasised about a guy so intensely when she wasn't in heat. What made it strange was that she had already had him once, and Max usually hated the guys she had 'got it on' with. But Logan was different from other men; he captivated her, what made him tick?

* * *

Looking at the clock it was a quarter to seven, and Logan had just about finished cooking. The table was set and music was playing in the background. The lights where dimmed only slightly, he didn't want to seem like a weirdo. Everything was going to plan. He couldn't really decide what to make for dinner, so he thought "ah fuck it, I'll make everything!"

He had prepared small amounts of things, like a buffet or tasting assortment, just with enough for a good meal for two. Sitting at his island counter he sipped at his glass of cherry coke, wondering if he should get changed again. He was garmented in a jet -black short sleeve shirt and black jeans with red detail, he didn't quite feel like being bright, he dressed how he felt. It was strange, he was excited, but most of the day after she went he had felt a bit self conscious, waiting for the giant mistake that he felt was inevitable on his part. He sat there picking at a bowl of rosemary-mashed potatoes yet to go on the table, licking his fork clean with intricate precision. Ten minutes passed and he had eaten half of it, so he stood to put the bowl on the dining table so he left some for his guest too. Upon him setting it down he heard a knock on his door, which meant she was here. Was this a good thing, or was his paranoia correct, was he going to mess this all up?

Despite his hindering mind he strode over to the door before finding it already open, only an inch or so though. Pulling it fully open to reveal Max, whom was stood there holding a bag, but after noticing the bag he noticed what she was wearing. He was struck earlier with the notion that tonight was only a formality before their trip to the place of her creation, so he as semi casual, which is what he guessed she was.

Stood in a breathtakingly curve complimenting simple red tank top and tight faded jeans with black sneakers she smirked like a guilty kid. "I kinda picked the lock but I didn't want to come in without being invited" She chuckled, her smile stabbing at his heart.

"What are you, a vampire or something?" he laughed, vampires usually requiring an invitation before entering a residence. He held his arm into his penthouse signalling his desire for her to enter.

"No, one genetic abnormality is enough for me, I'm not a collector" she said coyly as she walked in. Logan shut the door behind her, struggling not to watch her ass as she strolled in, but what he was weak enough to see was astounding. Besides wise cracks about the finer points of vampiric lore, the y walked silently over to the dinning table where a spread fit for kings lay, albeit miniature kings servings.

"My god that smells good, what's this?" she asked him, readily helping herself to the Chinese pork, sucking her fork in a most attention grabbing way.

"Thought I might go for a bit of a mixed thing tonight, not knowing your preferences I went with the two styles I couldn't pick between, glorified English roast and oriental spiced meats" He said.

"You make it sound like nothing," Max laughed between tastes of sweet and sour chicken and pea soup, "this is awesome!"

Logan almost blushed, or at least he would have if he weren't in awe of her speed eating. He was at the refrigerator about to get drinks when he noticed she had seated herself and began to feed. In his uncles old circle this would have been punished by death, but Logan thought it cute, at least he knew she liked his cooking.

"What would you like to drink?" he asked smirking as she looked up at him after discovering the finer qualities of the potato remnants. She suddenly looked like she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"You must think I'm an animal" she frowned at him realising that a posh guy like him must be used to etiquette or something.

"Of course not, I think of it as a compliment" he smiled a genuine smile, which gave her that fuzzy thing she found unusual. Despite his warming gesture she laid off the food until he returned with two tall glasses of coke.

"Ah, can't argue with a classic", She half expected something else outstanding but almost laughed when he brought her a common carbonated drink. Sipping it she saw he was watching her as he sat down to start eating, and when she arched an eyebrow at the strange taste he blushed.

"I erm, kinda remember you like cherry, so I broke out some cherry coke" He seemed to be avoiding eye contact as he picked at some spicy lamb on his plate.

"I thought you didn't know what I liked?" she asked quizzically.

"I remembered your lip balm" He said shyly.

"Oh."

His head was screaming with mute horror, "You fucking idiot! What the fuck have you..."

"Cool"

He looked up at her, and she didn't even seem phased by his instantly regrettable comment.

* * *

Rumandello, he decided, he would keep. It had nothing to do with him, but 57 was affiliated with that dead fucking bitch, so that was out, and his real name James brought him upsetting flash backs when mentioned. So the logical option was the name he adopted to give him strength, even if he had doubted its effectiveness.

He decided to head to the city, where he needed to regroup. He had no idea what he would do after he killed 452, so maybe he should delay it a bit, maybe enjoy the fact nobody was looking for him now.

The hunted had become the hunter.

* * *

"You cook like that every night?" Max asked as they sat on his sofa, looking out his large window and watching the foreboding cracks forming in the sky, the lightning shattering the usually steady rainfall noise.

"Not quite in that fashion but yeah I guess I do" He smirked

"I think I might come over more often"

Both of them sat in silence, taking in her comment, staring out the window wondering what they would find at the burning site of Max's creation.


	10. Amongst the ashes of God

**Amongst The Ashes Of God**

_Disclaimer: Anything you could sue me for isn't mine_

This is an AU story

* * *

Logan lay across his bed, fully dressed. It was 4.40 am and he was just lying there, watching the time drag past. After an over hasty good night from the two they had both retired into their separate rooms. It seemed almost that he was counting down the time until he could go and talk to her. Everything was ready for their speedy departure and hopefully effortless slip out of the city and to the burning embers of Max's memories. He had to wait the next 14 minutes until he could go in an acceptable 5 minutes early, and since he last looked only a minute had pasted.

Max was pacing up and down the guest room she had been in since 1am, when they both went to 'bed'. She quickly said "Goodnight" and rushed in, not sure if she wanted to see the bed she was in not long ago, with him. She could cope with seeing it, it was the feeling of wanting to get back in it that she couldn't, or maybe she would just laugh at him, but after their time together tonight, sober and in a contemplating but friendly atmosphere she couldn't see her self laughing at him. She hadn't been to sleep, but had instead just thrown herself around the room, lying on the floor, the bed, the chair, pretty much everywhere. She wasn't sure why, "Must be home coming nerves" she jested, trying not to think about the exquisite dinner she had, and how he had remembered her lip balm. The more she thought about it the more he seemed to good to be true, which is why she still didn't believe he was. But he did a damned good impression.

* * *

Rumandello looked over to the cloud of smoke to his right, the blackened cloud of Manticore was ascending to the heavens seemingly trying to blight them as it had done him. He tightened the scarf around his lower head, throwing the ragged end over his left shoulder before sitting up from the downed tree he had be perched upon. He didn't like what he picked up with his enhanced hearing from the slaughter site.

Footsteps.

His memories flickered in his mind like a dim candle in the night wind, the flame showing him the room, the room they kept him in for all those years. He was only a boy, a boy who cried for his parents, a boy who screamed to god when they opened him up, but he had learned that those 5 steps down into the basement laboratory where 5 steps too far for God's hearing, or as he had later came to realise, he had been forsaken.

The scientists worked on him for hours at a time, removing things most people needed to live, but this boy lived with only the fiery pain that came from having your nerve endings scratched away for research purposes. Repeatedly he blacked out, but they brought him around, that bitch insisting that he be awake during the procedures. Years passed and the boy's sanity took its leave of him, and soon the scientists were mutilating a man, one whom had broken loose a total of 8 times and disembowelled his torturers with his bare hands, often sating his appetite on their remains. He had not been fed since the injection they gave him, the injection he was given in the room of at least 50 kidnapped children, 56 to be precise. It was that injection and the following scan with some sort of device that made them remove him from the others and isolate him.

After so very long he had been imprisoned within a tank of water and left in there for a week or so, until a certain formula had been concocted. This he knew by the visits from Lydecker, the only one who seemed to talk to him, the only one who didn't treat him like a test subject. As to why Lydecker didn't break him out he had a strong belief it was because he would have killed him, being most feral at the time. Upon this formula being inserted into the dilution chamber next to his tank, Rumandello remembered screaming at her, screaming that he would kill her, kill her if she pressed that switch.

She pushed the switch and the formula was administered into the water, and his skin began to burn, blood blisters formed across his body and burst, his crimson liquid leaking from him like water in a sieve. That is what they wanted, she wanted. They had kick started what was already only partially active in his body as a child. It had taken them years upon years but they had finally unlocked his hidden potential, little did they know they had also sealed their own doom.

His eyes ignited with a furious light, the flames licking at his brow, emitting an animalistic growl as he sped back through the forest to see who dared live through his torrent of destruction.

* * *

"Erm, Max" he said to the guest bedroom's door, "It's time".

He had almost finished when the door flew open and she strolled out, "What are we waiting for then?"

* * *

After they had infused his body with the formula via his water tank, there was no more surgery. It seemed that no matter what device the people in white coats used, they couldn't even draw blood. His body wasn't entirely human anymore; small pieces of him had been replaced with some kind of organic metal, which seemed to be growing inside of him, from him. They kept him locked up for a few months after that, until Rumandello realised that by kick starting the multiplication of the living metal in his body that they had not allowed him a human body with metallic aspects, but a metal body with no other aspects. In other words his 'hidden potential' was eating him alive, slowly but surely turning him into a solid chunk of metal. Upon his realisation of this he went berserk, breaking free of his tank with his now iron fist and destroying all in his way as he broke free of his home for years, and ascended up the 5 stairs and into the daylight, which blinded him, it was the first time in his memory he had seen the sun. The rays on his eyes set off a kind of reaction, a flickering light glowing around his pupils, resembling a flame of sorts.

After breaking free he lived in various places, slowly regaining his sanity by reading books and observing the innocent people that surrounded him. Occasionally he lost it and killed a family or two, but that mattered not to him, because every time a Manticore recovery team showed up, he took great please in annihilating them, and sometimes even going looking for them. Once he even went back to Manticore to look for the missing gland that Lydecker told him about, the one which allowed him control over the metal which was destroying him, but apparently Manticore hadn't found it, which was typical of them he thought, the useless bastards.

* * *

Having bypassed the sector checks and emergency traffic heading to the site of the burning war zone Max and Logan had a good half hour on the rest of Seattle racing to Manticore, an almost insane thought for Max. Speeding down the outer roads Logan kept his eyes on the road, but Max let hers wonder.

She knew that if Manticore had truly just moved to another base of operations then the fire wouldn't have been so sloppy, it seemed to be the work of an outside force. He does look cute when he is concentrating. The outside force must me insanely powerful though, in order to take down a whole army of genetically superior soldiers, which made Max nervous. His arms are tensed too, I remember them being nice. What the hell could have done this?

Max was looking out of Logan's window occasionally drifting into thoughts of him as he moved slightly in her way and back again, and then looking forwards she saw the plume of smoke hanging ominously in the air ahead, and she and Logan braced themselves for the unsure as his Aztec braked and screeched onto the dirt track Max had told him to look out for. There hadn't been any conversation on this trip, and the silence was thick with apprehension, but the wait was almost over as they neared the final bend before a direct line of sight with Manticore's flaming remains.

* * *

Reaching the edge of the clearing he could see a figure running from the building, their movement jagged at best. He knew who it was, and drawing his blade he watched. He wasn't sure why he wasn't upon the survivor taking enjoyment in finishing them again, but he just stood there and watched. His attention was suddenly diverted as he saw a vehicle speed into the clearing and stop 20 feet away from the nearest corpse. He stepped back into the shadows and stood watching.

* * *

Max and Logan stepped with caution from his car. True it was a rash entrance but Max had pretty much convinced him that who ever had done this would be well gone by now. Looking across the field the grass and concrete was littered with parts and pieces of things Max barely remembered, blood flicked around like a painting by Jackson Pollack. Staring at the carnage Logan felt uneasy, like they weren't alone.

"Max, I don't like this" he said, his eyes darting around the tree line, "I don't think we are alone"

Before she could give him a reply she saw somebody just inside en-shadowed tree line at the opposite end of the clearing and she blurred off after the mystery figure.

Logan however pressed his hand to his head, which was throbbing, and as he grimaced he saw a glint of metal in the smoke dimmed sunlight a few feet from Max as she raced towards it, but she was too far gone to hear his warning.


	11. Waking Tears, Bleeding Hearts

**Waking Tears, Bleeding Hearts**

_Disclaimer: Anything you could sue me for isn't mine_

This is an AU story

* * *

The building that was formerly Manticore smouldered in the thick smoke, its compound littered with corpses. Logan's head was pounding as he stumbled through the wreckage. The creatures which lay in the field where sliced into various parts, some of them children, others being varieties of animal like creatures. No matter what it was underfoot the pattern remained the same, death. His eyesight was beginning to flicker as he ambled after Max, whom was seconds away from the tree line where he had seen the reflection of metal. He felt faint, but had no idea why. Going down to one knee he moaned as he clutched his head. He saw something in the corner of his eye move, a blur. Somebody was coming up behind him, and as he fell to the floor his eyes flickered before he felt hands on the back of his neck, tearing his shirt. After a few seconds he heard heavy footsteps moving away from him. He hadn't heard them coming towards him though, which was puzzling. He saw black and then went down into the cold waters of unconsciousness.

* * *

Max stopped when she saw the figure in front of her. He was in the shadows of the trees and she saw a glint of metal in the sun which danced through the foliage as it rustled in the wind. Her hearing picked up his heavy breathing, jagged and choking. She also heard the cocking of a gun and the ignition of a bullet in her direction. Spinning behind the large tree trunk next to her she watched as the bullet swam through the air she only seconds before occupied. Burning on her feet around the circumference of the tree she snapped her assailants wrist and floored him as he screamed. His hands were dripping with blood, and the awkward angle of his hand after her disabling attack didn't help his seemingly already wounded status. She looked down at him as he twitched on the floor, clutching his able hand to his face in an attempt to stem the flow of blood. Upon closer examination she realised he had blacked out from a lack of blood and serious injury. As she heard the approach of vehicles with her enhanced hearing she flicked his coat to the side and pulled his Manticore registration badge from his blazer chest.

"Donald Lydecker eh?" Max stated to aid her memory, which couldn't recall having ever seen this man before.

His eye was a real mess, looking like it had been knifed, but not deep enough to kill, or maybe it had and he was just abnormally lucky, but she didn't have the time to examine him. There appeared to be nothing here but this one man and a burning memory. This was no ditch and move show, someone had taken her creators apart and this man was seemingly the sole survivor. She lifted him onto her shoulders and started to carry him towards Logan's car where the sound of approaching vehicles got louder. She couldn't administer the medical attention he needed to keep him alive, so the best she could do was to leave him close to the entrance to the Manticore compound and hope that the impending arrival of an ambulance was enough to drag him from the gates of hell. She needed answers from this Lydecker guy, and she would be damned if he would die and take them with him.

As she got half way across the expanse she could smell the ghastly odour of burning flesh and looked to her left as she saw the cindering arm of somebody trapped under a piece of concrete that had collapsed. Within his open palm was a test tube, and from the distance of 12 feet she could make out the miniscule markings that read 'X7- 781'. Her stomach churned as she thought about it reading X5-452, feeling so full of a feeling unmentionable she had to turn away and plough on towards the car. It was at about this time she realised that Logan was no where to be seen, and in a potentially hostile environment as this she began to worry almost immediately, she thought that was most unusual to worry about him, but then forgot as she saw him lying face down in the ash not far from his vehicle. She speedily got to him and dumped the Manticore employee on the grass in plain view before blurring over to her fallen friend.

"Logan! Logan!" She shook him and then rolled him over to look at his face, which was pale as bone china. His head flopped as she held him up towards her. "Don't you fucking dare!" she spat as she felt for a pulse, which she felt raging through his veins. His condition was strange, she had never seen anything like it, but no matter what she couldn't let herself be discovered, and she wouldn't leave him behind. Picking him up she felt how cold he was as she carried to his car. Fastening him into his passenger side she jumped into the driver's seat. Looking forwards she took once last gasp look at the cindering building, looking just as horrific as she remembered, finding the brimstone an apt end for the pit of fire in which she was forged. Burning into reverse she sped back to the road the came from and accelerated towards the on coming traffic, it being just far enough away in order not to find them suspicious. As she raced towards the city Max realised that she had cleanly forgotten about all things Manticore and was now on a mission to get her friend back to his house. Colour seemed to be returning to his skin as time progressed and so the immediate worry that she would have to place him into a hospital subsided.

Upon passing the sector checkpoints she fobbed off the guards with her sexy smile and a casual yet feigned flirty eyes telling them that Logan was asleep. She hated doing it but in her current position she had to consider her having trouble and how it would look if her associate wouldn't rouse from his slumber. She parked up when she got to his penthouse and slung him over her shoulder as she walked towards the elevator, making her own wise crack about having had enough of carrying men in her life, literally as well us not.

She picked his lock and let herself in with him, placing him on his bed before she checked his pulse and forehead. This strange affliction seemed to be clearing up just as suddenly as it had taken hold of him. The other strange thing was the large tear down his shirt collar. It was straight down his spine to between his shoulder blades, and it was too precise to have been an accident. Somebody had done this deliberately, but she had no idea why. Somebody had attacked Logan as she had ran off after that Lydecker guy. She kicked herself repeatedly for not taking better care of him, also wondering where his assailant had gone, because she never saw anybody but Lydecker, and didn't see any puncture wounds, bruising or footprints or anything else which hinted to a struggle. Logan seemingly had been blindsided and put down by something biological. Whatever it was it was effective, but short lasting.

* * *

Their loud siren's irritated him, their drone unpleasant upon his sensitive ears. Moving through the woods Rumandello contemplated the appearance of those two human's who had appeared just after his victim appeared alive. He had not paid much attention to the female but had instead sought confirmation the man was 452, yet he wasn't. Departing upon seeing Lydecker being carried towards their vehicle he assumed they where there to rescue him, and he no longer cared. If Lydecker seemed to feel so strongly about living then let him, he had been marked now and would not quickly forget it. The twigs that snapped underfoot rung like notes in his ears, like randomised music which stopped upon his arrival at a roadside. The road was empty and desolate, nowhere near as beautiful to behold as the colours and lighting of the woods, but it served a purpose unlike the trees. It would carry him to the city, and to 452.

* * *

Max refused to let herself leave until he had awakened, which gave her to much time for introspection. Having had 2 glasses of that 'Cherry coke' stuff she found so Moorish, she had spent the last hour sat at his kitchen island; trying to think about the last man she cared about enough to flirt with sector police scumbags. By all means it was only a smile, but even that sickened her. In fact the more she thought about it she had never known a man who had put her in that position, but if it had arrived at that, most would have gotten their marching orders immediately. It was quite scary that this guy whom she hadn't known for very long at all seemed to hold such sway over her actions and approach to things. It worried her that he might turn around and let her in on the secret she hoped he wasn't hiding; he was an ordinary male. The cheating, beer-swilling shit heads that she despised so.

He seemed so different, she had never met anybody like him before in her life, she hadn't even imagined anybody like him. That's what she found the most worrying aspect, that he was unpredictable and new. Being so used to regulations and set methods as a child she had taken years to get away from trying to organise everything, but even so it had not completely removed the urge to control from her. He was uncontrollable in all aspects, even his consciousness was untrustworthy. Sure he seemed to have his vices, but they were admirable ones and small things that amused her. His desire to help those just because it is right was so unfathomably odd to her it was almost insane. If she was him she would have looked out for number one and fucked the rest of them. She doubted he had the experience down in the city to realise most of the people he helped where part of the problem, but she could see that there where good people, people that deserved their guardian in the skies. His little appearance issues drove her crazy too, like his stubble and his 'flicked in all directions bed head' hair. He didn't seem to care what he looked like except for his clothes, which where all of dark tones and deep shades. He seemed to pull it off so well, and his cooking. That was unbelievable to say the least, and couldn't be hindered by the fact he seemed to be able to get his hands upon things that Max didn't even know existed, such as this flavoured beverage he introduced to her.

That was one of the main reasons that she was sat thinking about him, the fact that he was unnervingly sweet and unmistakably nervous around her. Not nervous in a bad way, but like his reaction to her silence when he confessed he remembered her lip balm. Max thought she would let him sweat a little and gauge his reaction. Most of the men she had known would want some form of reward for something so heart warming, but he just became shy and introverted, which she knew meant he had just done it for her.

'All this stuff is messing with my head' Max thought as she sat up. Walking to his bedroom door she looked over at him sprawled out, the smudges of ash on his face suddenly raising Max's attention. Walking over to him she sat on the bedside and admired his sleeping face, the picture of a troubled mind. Since meeting him she had wondered what made him tick? He was so individual and alone it was nothing so obvious she could form a good guess on, but what ever it was she wasn't sure he would ever tell anybody, it seemingly still there even in his dreams.

She licked her thumb and rubbed the ash marks from his cheek, to which his skin was returning to normal temperature by her touch. His head moved slightly into her caress, and she stood up sharply, afraid.

* * *

Logan watched as they moved out of the double doors. The three shadowy figures departing from the four blood red walls he was stood in, and he ran after them. They all got into a black funeral car, and the boot was open. Running as fast as his working legs could carry him he dived into the boot as the car took off, but upon entering the boot of the car he began to fall, and as the light grew dimmer in the sky it became increasingly blinding as his descent into the boot continued, until he hit the source of the light hard, its blood soaked concrete surface unforgiving.

* * *

Max stood there, her hand at her side clutched into a fist. She couldn't take this, he didn't even care about her, and nobody could care about a genetic fuck up like her. As she turned to leave she heard a cough, and then sheets contracting under his slight movements. Turning around she saw his eyes flickering in the light of the morning sun. It was now an acceptable hour to awaken, around 10am, which wasn't bad considering where they had been and back already today.

"I gotta go to work, hope your okay. See ya" Max called as she walked away, needing to get out and away from him. Her head was on the verge of imploding with confusion.

Logan lay there for a few minutes more, wondering what he had done to piss her off. He couldn't remember much after they had arrived at the compound, so it was beyond him why she reacted to his awakening like she did.

8 days had past and Logan hadn't heard from her at all, which he didn't know how to take. He had no idea what had transpired during their trip, he couldn't remember a damn thing. Since he had woken up he had wondered why she seemed angry at him, he hadn't done anything wrong. 'Maybe I should go and say sorry' he kept thinking, but he didn't want to. He figured now that she wanted nothing more to do with him, he had served his purpose and now she knew Manticore wasn't after her she could go on living a normal life.

I guess I'm just another 'useless guy' to her, I just wish I knew why. Maybe it was because she knew he was a cripple. Once his valuable information went down the drain and she was reassured that he wasn't going to sell her to the highest bidder on ebay then why keep a paraplegic around to slow you down? What ever the reason was then he still had to find out what happened to him on that trip, he had felt weird ever since he got back. Maybe it was just the pain of knowing you're a broken toy and you had just been thrown away.

He had to go and find out what had transpired that morning, and with any luck find out why she ditched him like she had.

* * *

"Boo, why you avoiding the question?" prompted Cindy, arching an eyebrow at the look of distant thought on her friend's face.

"I'm not avoiding anything, you just won't seem to take my answer!" Max stated in almost annoyance, but she wasn't in the mood for an argument, and not even she could convince Cindy she was wrong, She didn't think that person existed, not even Diamond could manage it.

"Boo, you telling' Cindy that its all over between you and Hot boy, and that was just a one night dealio? Cindy ain't down with that bullshit for a number of reasons, two of the main ones being your attitude since you came home and that night in the club"

"What are you talking about? My attitude is the same as always!"

"When was the last time you went out except for work? You ain't even come to crash with us!" Cindy stated, waiting for the same excuses as she had gotten when she asked her a few days ago.

"I told you, I had a headache, and I said I would go next time. As for going out I can't find any petrol for my baby"

"Yeah yeah yeah, that be crap right there. That night me and home gurl saw you to up an' at it wasn't no drunken shit, cos I know you don't get that drunk. That was genuine hot shit and you know it. Now Boo I suggest you stop hiding around this joint lazzying it up like you have been and go patch your shit up with this Logan guy, because believe me, if you saw yourself you would recommend it too"

"I...I'm" Max sighed, "I'm just not used to this" She smirked

"Believe me Max, when an opportunity like this comes a' knockin', you don't blow it off and go hide. Cindy knows men and from what I have heard and seen this Logan fella is a straight up guy, and he deserves an explanation at the very least, permanent rights to yo ass wouldn't go a miss either..." Cindy mused, trying to rouse a reaction from Max.

"We're not even like that, the other night was.."

"Amazin'?" Cindy cut her off before she could finish

"No, I was going to say..."

"Mind blowing?" She cut Max off again

"An accident" She finished, reading Cindy's facial gesture and knowing her reaction

"Boo if you two was an accident god knows I wanna see the deliberates"

"Shut it" Max laughed. Her friend was right, Max had freaked and ran, but Logan deserved an explanation, even if that was the last time she saw him. She just couldn't cope with how she felt around him, it was too good to last, and no matter how much it hurt to admit her weakness to herself even silently, she had freaked because she was scared of her starting to care and then it ending. Having stayed detached through out her life when someone starts to demand something she isn't prepared to give then it gets hairy to say the least.

Either way Max would have to see him again, just because she had this aching feeling of loss that she knew only one person's presence could fill.

* * *

Logan was gritting his teeth as he lifted the 76th of his 80 reps. His arm's were burning and he was pushing himself further than he probably should, but he wanted to tire himself out, that way he could sleep, and that beat sitting around waiting until he had the guts to handle the rejection he was avoiding. It had now been 9 days straight without word, and his hope was all be abolished by his own self destructive mind.

At 79 his telephone rang, showing it as a payphone number from sector 4.

"Hello?" He asked cautiously, if somebody knew his real identity he would have to ditch the phone and server the line via his contacts to avoid being found.

"Logan, it's me, no need to sound so worried" Max laughed, sensing the tension in his voice.

"Er Max hi, long time no...talk" He grinned like a goof, he didn't quite know what to say. She had called him and sounded friendly, not at all like he had imagined.

"Yeah I guess it has been. Hey listen, I'm sorry I freaked the other day, I just... realised I was like super later for work an..."

"It's okay, I thought I had done something wrong" said Logan carefully, half expecting her to agree with him.

"No you didn't, I guess I just have to watch the time better in future" Max smirked, covering her trails, but she had a clue that he would guess why,

"Yeah so I was thinking, do you want to fill me in on our little expedition? I can't remember anything courtesy of me being out cold, and I can't be of much help if I don't know anything. He wanted to ask her out for coffee or something but he had the feeling that they should do business first, in case everything went nasty again.

"Yeah okay, How about tonight? About 8?" Max prompted

"Yeah that sounds good to me" he said before arching his eyebrow, "Max where did you get my number?"

"Girl can't tell you everything, trade secret" She chuckled. "See you at 8 then"

"Yeah"

"See ya"

"Later"


	12. Feeding The Enigma

**Feeding The Enigma**

_Disclaimer: Anything you could sue me for isn't mine_

This is an AU story

* * *

This distance was most infuriating, he never seemed to be progressing let alone nearing the end. Having encountered a road sign about an hour ago showing him to be a mere 23 miles away from the post-pulse cesspit of Seattle, the walk was becoming most tedious. That strange man at the Manticore site was not 452, Lydecker was alive, and the more he thought about it he desired to finish the job, letting him go was a mistake he intended to rectify with utmost haste. His ears picked up the deep growl of a motorcycle approaching him from behind. Turning he saw a large man on a chopper, his long hair and black clothes blowing in the wind as he sped towards the small man. Rumandello smirked sickly; this tedious walk wasn't essentially one he had to endure.

* * *

Logan Cale lat length ways over his couch, staring out of the skylight as dark settled across Seattle. It was 7.40 and he was bored stiff, not in a ''There is nothing to do' kind of way, more of a 'There is only one thing I want to do' way. He wanted to see her, wanted to see her smirk as she insulted somebody he had never heard of and probably never would short of her amusing little tales. Her eyes deep and mischievous, yet not as shallow in their emotional depth as usual, most people show how they feel quite fluently, but not Max. She was the emotional enigma, somebody who kept you guessing as to how certain things affected her. Obviously she would show certain base feelings such as anger and enjoyment (mostly of his cooking), but he always found himself admiring the way she had little quirks that let slip anything more complex. 

He had noticed these little things that let him know, certain sparkles of her eyes, little almost unnoticeable blushes and flicks of her hair. It was small acts like these that grabbed him and slapped him around the mouth demanding his attention, making him curse the days he had convinced himself that she was nothing more than an escaped lab rat. But having said that he was willing to try any method to curb his seemingly insatiable appetite for her presence, even lying to himself, struggling with the fact her body blew his mind.

Raising his wrist he scowled at the fact it was now only 7.48, and let his arm flop down with a thud, he really hated being bored, and yet he knew if he attempted anything else he wouldn't do a particularly good job due to absence of mind. At his age was he meant to feel like this? It threw him back to when he was at college, the anticipation, but it wasn't quite like this, because he wasn't just getting a 'shag', hell he hadn't even thought about her like that. Well not in the last ten minutes anyway, but he had now. Seeing her was different, it was like finding a part of himself he never knew he'd lost, somehow she made him feel elated, forgetful and yet not completely unlike himself when he wasn't with her. He could be himself and she wouldn't try and kill him or run off. Problem was she had.

Damn it.

He couldn't even remember having done something wrong; hell he couldn't remember a great deal except from feeling like shit after getting to the Manticore site, which is when his memory stated to fade, up until his hazy vision located him on his bed and Max making a beeline for the exit. Despite his initial shock he figured she would just fill him in when she next paid him a visit, a visit that never came. It had been 8 long mentally festering days, ones in which he was forced to confirm his feelings towards her in, feelings that he wasn't sure he wanted, because every time he got them the usual happened, somebody disappeared. They all fucked off and left him, Asha, Val, hell even Bling bailed after he started to feel like that about a woman.

Max had kept to the narrative, Letting him get attached, then deserting him. Yet another thing set her apart from all others he had ever known though, she had come back. He wasn't sure why, maybe it wouldn't even last, but if she came back it would break the habit of his lifetime, and would give him hope that possibly he wouldn't die a sad lonely old man left for a fake foreign arse-bandit.

Only 7.54.

Rolling onto his side he ran his hand through his hair, if she kept on fucking his life up like this he wasn't going to be able to do anything besides wait for the next chance to see her. It was an exquisite sense of failure as a man, to depend on the eyes of one girl to save you from an alcohol fuelled vendetta against everything he hated about himself personified in the city he looked down on. Men were supposed to drink beer, fuck the bitch and then go out with the lads and impress them with tales of how he screwed her but he doesn't give a shit. College frat party style sex with random women, getting pissed, these things were his lineage as a male, and he knew he hated the thought of it almost as much as he did the feeling he was a failure for doing so. Never being one to socialise with that crowd, even at college, was how he became such a crack wiz with computers, and that sense of being an outsider maybe led to him being so messed up over his own impulses, the ones to do the right thing and the others, the ones like he got when some jock laughed at him with his mate.

He blasted one between the legs with his boot and hammered shit out of the other one with his fists. It was the last time had ever had trouble, from anybody beside himself. He couldn't understand the subtle shade of grey called normality that lay between each of his desires, the ones to help and the one to further himself or destroy. He guessed he was just an all or nothing guy, and the balance between each polar impulse he received was hard to sustain, maybe eve…

"Well are you gonna get up and feed me or what?" Max asked amused, looking down at a startled Logan whom had lost time in self-contemplation.

* * *

"Hey, I didn't see you there" he laughed trying to shake the embarrassment of being court think a load of self-deprecating bullshit. Sitting up and scratching the back of his head he stood and turned to see her, she had moved from the behind the couch to the kitchen in a matter of seconds without him hearing her, which was slightly disconcerting considering she wanted something from him. 

"Quick on your feet aren't you?" He commented as he approached

"You should see me when I'm really hungry"

"What are you now?"

"Hmm, I'd describe it as peckish" She smiled, and noticed a look of though cross his face. "What's up?"

"Nothing much. So any preference today?" He asked without looking at her, his head was buried in his fridge, scanning over possibilities and things he'd rather save for later.

"I'm not fussed, although I wouldn't mind something I can get my teeth into" She added, just incase he suggested soup or something, she wanted solid chewy goodness.

"Right…erm…, ah I got it." He pulled something out and she asked while he was shutting the door.

"What amazing culinary miracle in the god of the kitchen going to bestow upon me today?"

"Pork sandwich"

"Well that's an anti climax"

"Your telling me"

"Eh?" She wasn't entirely sure what he meant by that, it sounded a little too serious for their patented light banter

"I haven't been out foraging, which I'm afraid to say limits us to this. Hardly what you'd expect of 'The god of the kitchen'" He was a little pissed off that he couldn't impress her with his cooking once more.

"It's a damn site more than I'm used to, don't go thinking I'm going to throw it back in your face. Where the hell did you get pork anyway?" She asked as he started getting it all sorted. He was uptight, she could tell, he didn't strike her as the kind of guy who lost sleep over the lack of contents in his refrigerator.

"A farmer friend of mine just outside the city, I managed to get partridge from him once"

"Really?" she put on a thick playful sarcastic 'I don't care' voice that made his ears prick up.

"Now were did I put that tabasco sauce?" He pretended to say to himself, and her eyes opened in mock shock

"Bring it on," She laughed. He passed her a plate and nodded his head towards the couch he had previously occupied, "Pig in bread on the second date, you lady killer"

"Do you want me to eat that?" He smirked, looking over his shoulder at her he saw a look of pride on her face, her mouth full and her eyes rolled towards the ceiling, her face that of defiant ignorance to his offer/threat. "Consider yourself killed." He laughed.

* * *

The night was quiet and moonlit, the trees still in the windless night. The light of the sector checkpoint illuminated a 10-foot circumference, within which stood a large armed guard. Growling as it slowed down the bike carrying the hunter rolled to a stop at the sector checkpoint. The large burly guard came out carrying an automatic. 

"Sector pass?" He grunted.

Rumandello raised his head and scowled at the Cop, his eyes flickering alive with flame. The man's eyes glared in horrific shock and he raised the barrel of his gun, unloading into the small biker who flew from the vehicle with the force of impact, crashing down to the road with a sickeningly heavy thud.The guard was panting, his finger clicking on his trigger, the magazine as dry as his mouth had suddenly become.

Whatever he had seen in his eyes scared him rigid, and with the fear of god he approached shakily the fallen victim of his weapon. Looking down the small man's flesh had been punctured in countless places across his body, his trench coat and under lying garments littered with holes, the scarf wrapped around his mouth and neck now presenting two just less than an inch punctures. Gulping he knew he was dead, but then why was there no blood? Bending down over the corpse he prodded freshly made chest cavity with the barrel of his gun, only to hit something solid. It felt like metal.

His face was one of sheer terror as the eyes flicked open, their ghostly flame burning into his screaming eyes. The sound unrelenting pain rang through the outer city limits as the small bullet ridden corpse crushed bone and tore free vital parts of anatomy.

Looking up from the crimson scene he gazed over the tall buildings and their glowing lights, inside the urban sprawl he would find him, 452, and Lydecker. Both would find their demise. The initiator of Manticore, Lydecker and its only surviving creation, 452, both renegade, and both being hunted by Manticore's biggest mistake and biggest success.

Donald he would find in the hospital, once he located it. Visiting hours were well and truly over.

Let the hunt begin.


	13. In dire need of Consequences

**In Dire Need Of Consequences**

_Disclaimer: Anything you could sue me for isn't mine_

This is an AU story

* * *

The couch was a two seat, which Logan thought would explain why she went and sat on the arm of the furniture, her feet on it, dirty or not. Sitting in front of her as she looked in he thought about how his uncle would act in this situation. At even the slight hint of putting feet on the couch he would have executed Max, his expensive taste being degraded before his eyes. Logan's couch was less regal in appearance, but still a rather extortionately priced piece. He couldn't fathom telling her to move, the sheer blissful ignorance was perfection in his eyes. She didn't jump on his furniture to piss him off, or because she was just plain rude, she did it because that's where she wanted to sit. Spare of the moment, free and unassuming she perched there happily enjoying something it took all of 30 seconds to create. No wonder she was becoming an obsession of his.

She looked up at him, raising her well-defined shoulder blades and her head tilted to one side, smiling playfully at him. He melted.

Her tight blood red top rode up above her faded jeans, exposing an inch or so of naturally dark toned skin, her leather jacket cast on the coffee table behind her. He couldn't help but marvel at her; she seemed different every time he saw her. Today she seemed quite care free, girlish even, in the very remotest sense of the word. What ever it was she seemed happy, and looked irresistible. He somehow had never envisaged her in red, but she gave new definition to the colour of life, which seemed to shout at his eyes, everything about her deafened him.

All through his life he had been given whatever he wanted by people, pretty much anything. Girls had never argued with him, accepting his opinions as law, his views as reality without question. His friends would nod their heads for cash, cash which allowed him things others could only aspire to. He felt fake, he hated people agreeing with him. Sure not everybody had, but if they didn't then they still didn't argue, they just vanished. Max was different. She came she saw she kicked his ass. Then she stayed. Over the 8 days he had feared the worst, his ass would go unkicked, his ego unchecked. Girls had previously only defied him lightly, over why certain things they liked weren't this or weren't that, but nobody had ever really had a conversation with him in which he didn't feel he had to continue out of relationship requirement. Talking to Max was different, she was entertaining, amusing, harsh and rude and all with that underlying hint of feminine wiles.

Like usual he had rather nervously nibbled his way through everything on his plate without conscious thought, and placed his plate on hers which had just arrived at his tabletop seconds earlier yet still as bare.

He looked up and met her gaze, he smirked a shy look, yet not a bashful shy, a confident but unsure of safe progression shy. Her eyes deep like bottomless well she breathed out roughly.

"So" He said lightly.

"So" She replied, sliding down from the arm of the couch to sit closer to him, yet still at different angles.

He wasn't sure entirely if he could feel her foot rub on his leg, it was probably just his overloaded mind, but he was still enjoying his own misperceptions more than she could know.

* * *

His eyes flickered, the facial contortions of extreme but not wholly unfamiliar pain blurring his vision as the rays of light enflamed his retina, and he coughed as he tried his best to rouse his body into movement, no matter how subtle.

Straining to sit up in his hospital bed Donald Lydecker had no idea how long he had been out, how the hell he wasn't dead. He also was rather pissed off about the fact only one retina was struggling to adjust to the light, the other had been sliced in half. His eye was gone, but that was the least of his worries. 57, James had to know that he was alive, and he wouldn't just let it drop, he would return to put him 6 feet under, or more than likely spread him liberally across the surface.

He had seen 452, he remembered her case file, and had even worked with her unit on the odd occasion, but couldn't remember her from the rest, not a stand out solider in his opinion. Either way he suspected she was dead, James was bound to have slaughtered her an instant after she left him be. His arm was all bandaged up as he distinguished that particular pain as her fault. The bitch broke his wrist, and then saved his life? Lydecker wasn't stupid enough to assume they found him so far away from the main burning corpse pile, she must have moved him, didn't matter anyhow.

Struggling to make his lazy body obey Lydecker had only one thing in mind. Escape.

* * *

Looking across the couch at him, she was closer to him than she had ever been, his smell distinct and her foot slightly brushing his leg. She knew he was paraplegic, that contraption somehow in hell let him walk around; even she had never seen anything like it. But hey, Eyes Only could get partridge for hells sake, that was like the holy grail or something, but her train of thought seem scattered at best, ever slight contact with his mute body sparked her into a strange feeling. Tonight was meant to be strictly business, but this feeling that she had seemed to be making that awkward, making the air between them distinctly not so. She knew she was flirting, not in an open way, but in the strange way that she knew he did with her, it was a hard thing to describe.

The silence was only momentary, but it felt like his words were forever delayed. Fearing that he was going to shoot her down whilst she was almost blatantly stroking his leg with her foot she withdrew it and started first, but he uttered almost in sync with her own injection.

"Well I'd…" "So are we…"

They both stopped.

"Go on" You First"

They did it again, and Max smiled, he almost blushed and gestured with his hand that the floor was open to her to speak. She did so, and almost forgot what to say as his hand flicked past her leg to rest on the empty couch between the two. Explaining how he blacked out, about the guy called Lydecker she dragged into the opening, how badly hurt he was, not mentioning how she helped him in that respect, the snapping of limbs wasn't the best conversation piece when you were getting almost unnoticeably closer to a hot guy on a couch. He seemed generally oblivious to the whole thing, but after she joked about the sector cops scandal, she knew he was going to ask why she bailed on him so sharply, and she didn't know how to answer. Their banter raised his interest almost as much as his body temperature, being so close to her while she captivated him, albeit in a most disturbing way, made him think less of the fact he had hit the floor like a sack of crap for some reason.

He never asked why she bailed. She was relived, but wasn't sure if it was entirely. She thought that if she faced it down then he might understand; he might have a clue how she felt, why she felt and why she was afraid of it.

He had heard everything, and was completely non-the wiser for it all; he still had no idea why he had suddenly dropped, and if it would happen again. Really now wasn't the time, he had more important things at hand, or in this case arm's length. She sat there thinking, her head ever so slightly rolled away from him, her eyes in conversation with her mind. He stood and she sudden blinked and looked up at him, he yet again noticed her innocent eyes pleading for something, he wasn't sure what.

"Coffee?" He asked. He scratched his nails on his leg, he had to occupy his hands, they wanted somebody else's leg, but that wasn't going to happen.

"Is there any of that cherry stuff left, you know the coke?" She seemed to have dropped the exuberant sparkle of life she had upon her entrance, now clear and open he had a feeling she was laying it bare, if not to him than to herself.

"I'll see what I can do"

Turning he walked to his fridge and found just enough for a glass left. Pouring it he turned to his kitchen island for coffee beans, only to find her propped up on the other side of it. He was too deep in his own world to be visibly startled.

"Whoa, you're going to have to watch that little trick of yours when I'm cooking, I'll burn myself in fright" He smiled, reaching out for the sealed box of imported coffee.

"Am I really that harsh on the eyes?" She asked in an obviously mocking sad tone, he knew she was playing with him. Split second memories of their first chance meeting in her apartment appearing in his mind's eye, their casual flirting care free and flowing, now he felt the difference. Now it felt more real, he knew that then it was just because she found him attractive on the outside whilst this seemed different. But maybe that's all it was? It just 'seemed' different because he was starting to get attached to her? Maybe to her this was exactly the same? Maybe she was only using him for food, which is what they mostly seemed to do while she was here, eat, and then she usually ran. Still the jesting suggestion that he found her repulsive caught him like a deer in headlights. Not knowing what to say words dropped from his mouth like dead weights, in free fall without his control.

"Is that what you think?"

"I was asking you" She threw it back, almost harshly, but still toying with him.

"Does it matter what I think?" He wasn't biting, seeing it on her face she was getting slightly wound up by his avoiding of the lure.

"It does to me". Did he hear that right? She sounded sincere for the first time since she got to his kitchen. She looked at him again with those eyes that stole his breath, and he knew that this was one of those turning points. She was trying to get a valid milestone in from him. He could say she was hideous, which he wouldn't even do if it was true, tell her she wasn't bad, which would confirm they were at the pinnacle of their intimacy at either end of the kitchen island, or he could tell her the truth.

"In my opinion, …your breathtaking" He had told her the truth, and he knew more than her it was literal also.

"There now that wasn't so hard was it? Just testing to see if those glasses of yours actually work." She smirked, and despite his lack of belief he was almost certain he had seen her blush before she turned away.

"It's raining pretty bad out" She stated, and he placed he walked around to stand next to her, standing tall as she leant against the furniture as they admired the twilight ruin of the city. Holding her glass out to his left she accepted it with both hands, bushing against his and they both felt it, that feeling you get when your body radiates heat, the warmth of your apprehension excelling yet melting away, the flickering of the heart in the blankness of the vacant mind.

"Yeah I think there's a storm coming on. Maybe you should get going before it gets too rough, or you cou." He stopped when his kettle clicked off and beeped, sending him walking away from her to finalise the brew.

"I could what?" She asked, suspecting but wanting confirmation.

Logan swallowed hard as he stirred, but hell, he had already told her about her effect on his oxygen intake. "You could always stay here tonight" He heard her place her glass down. "Spare room of course".

"Yeah okay, I don't wanna mess my hair up now do I?" she smirked looking out across the city still, the weather now starting to slam down with the wrath of fate. As rain hit hard on the windows of his penthouse they stood back to back. The air was a heavy mix of exposed feelings and relaxed comfort in them. Both clung to their receptacles like life lines, clung to their hope that tonight wasn't going to end the way they both feared.

Max fighting her demons, struggling with the fact that he seemed to accept her more than she accepted herself.

Logan forgetting the injury and horrid past experiences with women was left with the nagging feeling that no matter what happened the future was bleak, uncertain. Something was giving him a feeling of doubt, and it was not only a shadow over his feelings for the woman behind him, but over the very existence her struggled to fill with meaning.

Something was coming, and he knew, like the storm to the city, it was going to wash him clean and bleed him dry.

* * *

Stalking through the deserted streets was a battle lost before it was started. Rumandello had no idea how to go about finding 452, the ever elusive genetically engineered man with whom he had a dance with destiny awaiting. The drains flooded and the neon signs flickering on and off due to a lack of care, the city was even more of a mess than he had thought, he hadn't been to this part before. He had taken residence in numerous places around the out skirts, churches and such abandoned buildings, but he had never really ventured inside.

The fact he had one person to find was annoying. The fact he had a person whom he didn't know anything about who wanted to stay hidden and was trained to do so infuriated the short mutating individual. But then he thought about it, he had two things to do in this city. One was 452, but failing that there was Lydecker, whom could possibly lead him to 452, possibly. But even if he didn't he was a valuable piece of fun to be taken advantage of immediately, he would enjoy cutting him up.

He had a vague idea of which direction the hospital lay in from his experiences watching ambulances rushing into the city past his varying abodes, and continued on his way. The first lightning strike of the approaching storm cracked its thunder, as did the wicked grin on the hunters face.

* * *

The flash momentarily lit his penthouse as Max looked over Logan's shoulder as he typed in various codes and backdoor combinations to gain acess to admittances.

"Are you sure he's not dead? He sounded pretty fucked up to me what you describe" Said Logan as he pushed aside slightly to allow Max to type a name into the search engine Logan had hacked.

"If what I heard was true this guy has a problem with dying, he's still kickin' I'm sure of it" She finished typing and Logan clicked the appropriate entry numbers.

"Your right there he is. Lydecker, Donald. He sounds messed up, what the hell happened to him?" Logan took in the horrific details of the patient.

"That's what we're going to find out" Max told him, and he spun his chair around to look up at her.

"When?"

"Tomorrow, or something. He's not going anywhere fast. Anyway, I'm hungry again" She cocked her head at his look of curious disbelief.

"Max its past midnight, and I gathered you don't sleep much but I'm beat. Could you let your own personal chef pass out on you?" He laughed when a look of hurt crossed her features.

"Why should I?"

"I'll make you breakfast in the morning, what ever you want" He stood up and yet again they seemed closer than most people stood when they weren't 'like that' as he had been trying to make himself believe they weren't.

"I guess I could let it slip this once. But I never asked you to make me food."

His tired eyes shot open as he was already watching her walking away towards the spare room. Why did she keep playing with him, that meagre suggestion was going to play on his impressionable male mind all night. She could have just meant she didn't want him to cook food, just stick something together. Or… but he was knackered anyway, and he stumbled off to his room. Waltzing down the corridor he flopped on his large soft sleep inducing bed. The crack left by his door not being quite shut shone light into the dark room. The light moved, disappeared and then flickered, something was moving in between him and the source. Rolling over he looked to see that the source was the light bulb in the spare room, and the movement was that of Max. The door was almost directly opposite; it was a strange design feature he had often thought, bu then then erm…

Her back to him she pulled her top over her head, revealing a black lacy bra and toned mocha skin enveloping her back. Practically speaking in tongues Logan was incoherent, watching in silent awe as she stretched her arms above her head, now standing sideways to him. Her flicked back, slipping down her neck likeblack water over chocolate, her lithe feminine curves driving him insane. Her bust drew his attention, and her toned stomach, ah hell. He rolled over, it was too much to stand. Trying to clear his mind he dropped from the struggle a few minutes later, falling into a deep vivid dream state. Looking through the gap in her door she observed his fully clothed state all over his bed. Walking in her underwear through to his room she pulled a blanket over him and took his glasses off. She knew he had seen her, and was glad she had worn the 'spicy number' as OC had put it. Looking down at him she noticed small things about him, and things about the room she had remembered as blurs, faded less interesting aspects of that night she had spent with the figure sprawled out beneath her. Seeing his innocent vulnerable state made her feel calm, at peace. Things receded back into their sordid little holes to leave her be, and she wasn't sure how she felt about feeling. She wasn't meant to be emotional, but tonight she had tried to be open with him, tried her best not to obey the built in urges to run at the slightest sign of him mirroring how she felt about him.

It had worked to her best guess, she had told him that his opinion mattered to her, which had taken some guts even for her, and confirmed that he wasn't blind, to which she smirked. Overall she was happy with it all, her little flirting and the business aspect. She would think about Lydecker tomorrow, for now she silently moved away from his sleeping form, her admiration for him having grown considerably, and she was sure that the fact he hadn't lay there staring at her blatantly meant something, whatever it meant she thought as she slipped into her bed after shutting the door, she liked how it made her feel to know it.


	14. The Day of Reckoning: Part 1

**The Day Of Reckoning: Part 1**

_Disclaimer: Anything you could sue me for isn't mine_

This is an AU story

* * *

The black, the blank, the bleak little cage was crying on him, weeping blood. Inside he was crammed, he had thrown himself in at the last minute, self-inflicted night, moonlight accompanied by the screams, the echoes of anguish and almost unimaginable pain. He had put himself in this, made himself do it, they told him not to, but he wouldn't let them go, he wouldn't let them leave him.

The light that crept through the gaps shot accusations at him like the bullets that licked his ears with their venomous tongues, his tears burning down his cheeks as they rang in the stagnant fog like funeral bells, lingering with the most morbid attraction. The three outside dead, riddled with gaping holes, broken streams, gurgling brooks of crimson which flowed over the road, seemingly trying its best to escape the prison of their bodies, vacating the corpses like the hope vacated the boys dreams, shattered bodies and a soul, fragmented by the anguish of something too shocking for conscious sanity to comprehend. And so it simply chose not to, but its scars were becoming increasingly evident, it wouldn't be long now before his memory failed him, before his memory didn't fail.

Before he even knew he was awake he was rubbing the sleep from his eyes with the ball of his palms, his dry lips scoured as a rough cough ripped over them, he had slept well, but felt like shit. Hell he was still dressed, he had a blanket over him, but he was stiff from dropping into sleep unprepared by the looks of it, yet his glasses were absent from his face, Max must have found him an removed them. Max… he inhaled sharply as he found himself staring at a pristine mental photograph of her stretching in nothing more than her extraordinarily arousing underwear, damn… snapping out of it he realised that his legs where sore from lying in the exoskeleton all night, and he grimaced as his stiff body rose, gritting his teeth as various parts cracked and tensed.

Stiffly he stood, and he swallowed hard, his dreams where beginning to trouble him, their imagery sharp and full of things he couldn't remember he knew, things which fucked him up with just their concept. He was confused by it, but they seemed so familiar. He knew that they where of his parent's death, but other than that it was a blur of what small fragments his mind placed before him, the whispers of his dreams.

Traipsing to his kitchen he filled the coffee machine with a hand full of beans, a few from his pre mixed bag, 2 Italian to 8 Brazilian If he remembered correctly, it was distinct, but he liked it. Still draped in the worn and overly creased garments of the day prior he again thought of Max, this time trailing to her door, wondering if she was awake yet. Yet? What time it was remained a mystery, and he wandered off to his bedroom to look at the clock, and upon arrival he remembered he was wearing a watch. 'Dear god I'm asleep on my feet' he though, 'so bloody dozy I can't think'.

He wandered back to Max's doorway opposite his, now firmly in possession of the knowledge it was 10.04am. Knocking with the back of his knuckles he rasped hoarsely as his voice broke, coughing he tried again to use it for the first time since the sun shone its rays over him that day.

"Max? Max you up yet?"

The door opened and she stood looking up at him, this life giving wry smile of hers dragging the tiredness from his body as her eyes drew his 10 miles deep into her soul.

She was wearing nothing except the lacy number he had seen her in the previous time he had the pleasure to grace her figure with his attention, and he was speechless, literally.

"I see somebody's…up" She purred at him running a soft finger down over his lips, down to the base of his neck and to his thinly toned chest. He was suddenly paralysed as well, his brain was shutting down and she stepped up to him, tearing his top straight down the middle and pushing down his arms and off, it crumpled in a heap, much like Logan would if he could physically act. Running her hands back up his arms she liked what she felt, toned muscle, sprinkling of hair and odd scars and moles, identifying marks. To his taught shoulders she dug her fingers in, massaging away the nervous tensing of his body, reeling in the closing of his eyes as she stepped in and their body's caressed, his lips parting as he felt her chest push against his tough frame.

Her hand slipped down his chest, flicking open his pants, and he knew what her only words to him had meant. Kissing his throat and neck she brought him with her to the bed, falling back she pulled him on top of her, and she moaned softly as she felt him all over her, her inner legs set alight by the dancing hairs on his outer leg. Her eyes drifted shut as he pressed his hips into hers, she gasped at the contact. Opening her eyes she saw the door a few feet from the end of the bed. She was wrapped up, alone.

"Shit"

"Max you up yet?" She heard from the other side of the door. Oh, freaky…

"Yeah," she said loudly so as he could hear her, "What do you want?" She wished she hadn't said it so harshly, a bit bitter that Logan had stolen her away from, ahem, Logan.

"Erm, you want some coffee? Freshly ground?" he added the last bit as a sure fire ego stroke, he was pretty proud of the discovery of his own personal blend. More so he wanted her to get up, he wanted to see her. Guess she must not be a morning person; he took the judgement from the razor tone in her voice.

"Yeah, I'll be out in a minute" She called, then heard the minute sounds of him moving away from the spare room which she occupied.

Whoa, what the hell was all that about? She could swear she could taste him, on her tongue, even more weird was the fact she didn't usually dream unless she… of fuck. No she couldn't be, but she had said that about things before. No, Manticore would never stop looking for her, they did (Because they're all dead), Normal was never straight, but for some reason he did actually like females, and it was really god-awful timing for her to go into heat. All the "I couldn't be? Or could I?"s in the world couldn't shake her feeling that the almost tangible dream she had just experienced was brought on by it.

Heat.

Oh fuck. Now what am I going to do? Maybe I'm just, what? Horny? I don't get horny, I get insane every few months. But maybe I? Oh fuck. Fuck fuck fuck…

Nothing I can do, might as well go see how bad it is, see how hard it is to control.

Rousing from her bed she decided that she wouldn't get dressed yet, as she was going to take advantage of his shower, and would quite frankly not take no for an answer from him. Maybe he wanted one too…? What? Did I just think that? Shut up Max!

Wearing a dressing gown hung on the back of the door she opened it and stepped out into the hallway, inhale deeply and blew out, then turned towards the kitchen area where she could hear liquid meeting the bottom of mugs, 'still calm' she thought to herself, composure control at 100.

Upon seeing him she smiled, he looked rough. His clothes creased and his hair worse than usual, but his eyes were bloodshot slightly, nothing a change of clothes, breakfast and showe… Shut it! His sea deep blue eyes had something below the surface she hadn't seen before, something troubling him, and it hurt her to see it.

"Thanks". She accepted the mug he had passed her as he walked around to face her.

"Hope you like it" he smiled, smelling his like an addict she noticed, but the aroma was quite different from what coffee smelled like usually. Tasting it was also different, she wasn't sure if it was good or bad, but upon second sip she found herself quite fond of it.

"Its unusual, but I like it." ,her lips only an inch or so from the cup as she sampled more of the strange brew.

"Yeah I know how you feel" He smiled shaking his hand in his scraggy hair. Rolling her eyes up she wondered if he was referring to her, probably by the slight smirk he had, but he still didn't look his normal self.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah, just a rough night." He passed her off with, and she knew it wasn't that.

"Bad Dreams?"

"How could you tell?"

"You look like shit"

"Good morning to you too. This coming from somebody with the morning manner of a rabid wolverine" He drew a drink from his mug and grinned at her.

"Yeah sorry about that, I was just enjoying myself" She looked a bit disgruntled at herself for biting his head off with her first few words of the day. Logan however almost choked on his coffee, coughing and placing his mug down behind him.

He looked at her in disbelief, and she then clicked what he had thought she meant.

"I was having a nice dream, what did you think I meant?" She enticed him to take the bait, but she knew he never would.

"Hot coffee" He bit his lip for a split second before re-collecting his mug.

"Men." She chuckled to herself.

He looked embarrassed, but she had taken note of the fact that he had been the one with sex on his mind, not her, and if she were in heat she would have attacked him on sight. She was now forced to see that she found him so attractive that she was dreaming about him, which had never happened before. It was strange, even now when he looked like he did, she found herself charmed by his wit and scruffy appearance, and she was worried about him. That was completely new to her. She had never actually cared about a guy enough to give a fuck how he felt if it didn't affect her. Logan was hiding something, and it pained her that he did, she wanted to help him. She had now openly admitted to herself that she cared about him, he was important to her, and his problem was now her problem.

"You sure your okay?" She looked at him with a quiet sense of empathy.

"Yeah I'm fine," he told her. She kept looking at him, knowing that wasn't all he was going to say. "Just a bit shook up is all"

"Wanna talk about it?" She asked, and he shook his head slightly.

"Thanks" He said simply. "You hungry then?"

"Am I ever not?"

* * *

Rumandello had been walking through the night, and was nearing the hospital, the signs pointing him since a few miles back. So far he had not slain anybody, mainly because he didn't want to have to deal with the sector cops, just yet. Before they learned of his existence he needed the information on the whereabouts of 452 from Lydecker. That was crucial to his plans, after that the authorities could be cut down just like anybody else in his way. He would gain closure. This would go full circle. Manticore's legacy would be denied his life, and it would finally put an end to those who abducted him and everything they had tortured him to create. He knew he was already the dead walking, the reaper. It would not be long now before the disease they awoke in him killed him, he lost his control and just became a block of malleable metal.

Before that happened he wanted answers, and all the more fun if anybody tried to stop him.

* * *

Running her hand through her hair as the hot water licked her body she was forced to conceive that she was just plain horny this morning, for him alone. An odd idea that her arousal was not for just a hot guy, but she was specific it was him that made her like this.

It was a nice thought that he had been in this shower before her, the body her mind remembered in blurs an vivid gasps hot with water, it was to be blatant, arousing, but she had better stop, it wasn't a healthy idea. They where going after Lydecker, the monster under the bed from her days in Manticore, and she needs to get her head straight, get in the game. Then wondered what smelly fruit based soapy thing to use, it was a luxury she had never before been given.


	15. The Day of Reckoning: Part 2

**The Day of Reckoning: Part 2**

_Disclaimer: Anything you could sue me for isn't mine_

This is an AU story

* * *

The Elevator dropped slowly to the garage, and Max fidgeted to pre-occupy her hands, her hands eager to slam the man accompanying her against the steel interior and fuck him so hard he lost IQ points. It was working so far, but he was still feeling the effects of whatever he dreamt about and looked rough as shit. Unable to fathom why that look appealed to her she bit her lip as he ran his tongue over his bottom lip, his fingers breaking the waves of his hair and numerous other momentary actions that she struggled not to notice.

The shake and cease of the enclosure signalled freedom, and the blast of cool air that rushed in to engulf her slapped some of the haze from her eyes.

"Which soap did you use?" Logan inquired, avoiding looking at her he walked out towards his vehicle, leaving Max to answer to his back as she pursued.

"The purple one. Why?" she thought he might get his exo in a twist over he using his favourite one or something, Jackass.

"You smell nice, suits you" He was trying not to let her see his cheeks dilute with colour, unlocking with his beeper from 10 feet he strode to the door. Max didn't give an answer, which he wasn't sure was good or bad, and just let it drop. She was smiling, and didn't want to let him see how she was looking at him. The Aztec pulled out into the street and a silence of bliss set in. Max almost forgot how nervous this little trip was making her, but not nearly as much as it should.

Lydecker, not somebody she had that much contact with at Manticore, but the stories she heard, the deeds she knew the repercussions of all made her want to spin the car and go in the opposite direction until she reached Atlantis, or any other place so far the nagging voice in her head scratching her brain telling her to flee would shut up.

"Max you ok?" he flicked his eyes in her direction for a split second to clarify that she did indeed look a bit worried.

"I have a feeling this isn't going to go well" She muttered

"Nothing ever does in this city, especially when you know me" he smirked, and her expression didn't change much. He kept on driving.

* * *

Pulling up to the hospital Max was on edge, yet in control. The whole idea of going into a hospital alarmed her, she wasn't too keen on surgeons and people in white coats after Manticore, but going in to find a ghost of her past, possibly the last person from Manticore alive. He held all the answers, what happened to Manticore? Who was it that destroyed the place? Would that somebody come after her? By wiping out the people who haunted her every shadow they had set her free, but she was now adamant that it was too easy, that now she was the big game in the park, and somebody was going to come gunning for her prize genetically engineered ass.

Parking up Logan looked across at her. He wanted to comfort her, but he knew that being conditioned as a solider never really wore off. She had her game face on, and he was only here as the back up by all means, this was her job. It's her boogieman, it was her creator, and as she removed herself from the car and started towards the entrance without him, it is her hopes and fears as well.

Slipping inside the doors she heard Logan's slightly heavier than most jog to catch up. Upon his arrival within 5 feet of her she continued towards his room, already knowing where thanks to Logan, it was just a case of following the signs.

Taking a right at the end of the long corridor, Max spied room 623. This wing was desolate, Logan was keeping his eye out for anything, anybody that might be waiting or jeopardise Max's chance of interrogation Lydecker. Keeping station at the corner of the closed off set of 6 rooms he looked over she repeating 'calm, chill Max'. It almost worked. For the first time since she was within her extended earshot she heard sounds come from within his room. Twisting from the tattered cream wall to peer inside she saw something that put her theory into reality, throwing her attempts to calm down into complete dissolution.

Lydecker was in the room, he was on the bed, he was on the chair in the corner, he was on the floor. Inside the gloomy, dirty little hole of a space was stood a small figure, his hands crimson, the gore running down them. He had pulled off Lydecker's arms and legs, the scene almost made max Ill, and that wasn't an easy thing to do. Like a cockroach he had been picked apart, and as his blood spiralled down the steel bedposts so did her hopes of answers. His eyes flickered into an illuminating appearance of fire, his head turned towards her and she couldn't move. He didn't move, just kept looking at her. Before she could prepare Max was forced to duck, a blade hammered into the wall at her previous eye level. Glaring up at the sword-wielding psycho she saw a select few of her own hairs floating down towards her, movement a slit second slower would have left her with a considerable migraine.

Trying to pull the sword from the wall the short hunter gave Max chance to counter his lightning strike, and she drilled her fist into his scarf wrapped jawbone as she lifted herself into a deafening uppercut. It lifted Rumandello from his feet and he stumbled backwards into the chair, crushing it as he fell into it. Logan's attention had been gotten by the shriek of agony that Max had emitted at the point of contact, her hand bleeding and pulped up, striking him felt like she had just punched a re-enforced door.

Logan didn't quite know what to do when Max was reeling on her side, clutching her hand and was then sent careering into the opposite wall via the attackers thunderous knee to her ribs. Cracking into the cheap plaster it crumbled to dust with the sickening impact of her body, crumbling bits pelting her form as it connected with the floor. The short assailant finally managed to pull his blade from the wall, turned to Max and was only seven or so steps away from her motionless form.

"One had hoped for more vigour" He growled, his voice like sandpaper over Logan's ears.

5 steps. "Thee disappoint" His footsteps cracked the cheap tiles as he put his frustration into his feet. Logan knew he couldn't stop him, Max was just dominated in front of his eyes, and this guy wasn't even trying by the look of it.

"452 ist female, and I have seen thee before, Yet where I remember not" 3 steps.

His sword pointing accusingly at Max's broken shell He raised the weapon to plunge into her skull. Turning to the side he saw a flash of leg and Logan's foot connected fully with Rumandello's side, the blow cracking in his ears as he watched the small trench-coated man take flight into and through the wall at the end of the 10-foot corridor. Logan had no choice. Scooping Max up ran as fast as he could with her limp body to the back fire-exit as to avoid attention for carrying an injured woman away from a hospital instead of into one. Ever since he had gotten to the corner of that corridor his mind was fogged, he felt faint, and the further he moved now the cleared everything was.

Throwing Max into the back seat of his car Logan moved as fast as he humanly could in burning his tyres backwards and the screeching out of the carpark and towards his penthouse where he hoped Max was going to wake up, hoped she would still be able to wake up. He was going to have to call his friend Sam, because Max was in a state, and he knew just by looking at it he had shattered the bone in his leg from vollying that guy in the ribs, he was solid, like a brick wall or something. Max twitched in the back seat, his bloodied hand gripped the wheel tighter as he fumbled for his cell phone, he needed Sam right now.


	16. Ripples:Splinters

**Ripples:Splinters**

_Disclaimer: Anything you could sue me for isn't mine_

This is an AU story

* * *

Looking back it had been a shock to the system, a big one. Max was usually the last to get into a fight and the first one to finish it, effortlessly, but that had ended a week ago. They had gone to see Lydecker, Max's chief demon, But upon their arrival it appeared a coup for that position had taken place, and Max got her ass handed to her by a short guy with an old before schools existed version of spoken English.

Not the best way to start the day.

Max had just been man handled by this mystery opponent, whom was still wet with the blood of her maker, and Logan had only just managed to get her out safely, at the lose of his own shinbone's structural integrity. Good Job he couldn't feel it, and the exo kept most of the pressure off as he carried her to his car and burned off to Sam, the only shot he had at keeping her safe and keeping her alive. It wasn't something that was usually done, running away from a hospital needing urgent medical attention.

He managed to get Sam on his phone, who made his way to Logan's penthouse as fast as he could, he had been out and it would have been quicker than to get back to his surgery. All in all Max had valiantly struggled through, Logan's leg was plastered up and set, and Logan remembered how sick he felt until she woke up about 3 hours after escaping the hospital.

Neither of them had left his penthouse for days, knowing that he was out there looking for them, but after that time Logan had sent Bling out for food and medical supplies whilst the two tried to decide what to do about this big new in both their lives, and also the Rumandello situation.

* * *

"Hey" Logan almost whispered as he entered the spare room, seeing that Max was sat on the side of the bed she had made her own as of late. She looked a bit absent minded, like she was in deep thought. He bet he knew what about, but he had no idea how she was processing it all. Her creator/ own personal Satan had been dismembered and she had to see the remains, but not only that she had been ground into the floor by a short man with a creepy voice, the kind of guy she used to beat on hen they touched her. Logan would be glad for her that Lydecker was out of the picture, but he wasn't sure which if she was thinking what he was beginning too, better the devil you know. 

"Hey" she said softly turning to see him take a seat next to her, "What's up?"

He smiled; she looked at him like consideration was unusual. "Nothing, I just wanted to see how you are, being stuck up in here with me for a long period I would imagine not to be thrilling you." His self deprecating humour seemed lost on her in this mood, it was like a numb honesty, she felt open, like her tough girl image had been crushed when she lost a fight.

"I couldn't ask for anybody better to be hiding with" She smirked at the idea of hiding, it was so un-manticore like it was sickening, the solider breeding she guessed.

"What are you thinking?" she heard him ask, and she wasn't sure how to answer, her mind was foggy with fears and hopes, memories swirled, blurred together. "I, I don't want to seem ungrateful Logan, but I'm not used to this, being trapped that is. I mean don't get me wrong, I… you're the one guy I would want to spend time with, but I hate being here." She turned her head to Logan, and he could see the faint traits of healed bruising around her face, she healed fast, and this view of a sullen Max he wasn't experienced with almost scared him. She looked fragile, he didn't want to break her, not like the robust girl he was crazy about, the one who had so much fire.

"Your frustrated. I know the feeling" He said looking at her in a way she knew indicated his disability, the lack of control, when something you have taken fore granted is suddenly taken from you, anger, tension, its infuriatingly constricting.

"I just, I know you must think I'm ungrateful, I mean you must think I'm a selfish bitch" She wasn't sure why she felt she had to ask him this, but if she didn't it would prey upon her fragile mind until she did.

"Max, I know your used to doing things your own way, your used to the move, your trained for it. I don't think your selfish for wanting to go, I respect you for being like you are, calm and considerate. I am just scared that guy is still out there looking for you, after a few days he dropped from the radar, none of my contacts seem to be able to find him. I just couldn't handle you going and not coming back." He had said it, and he felt his mind clear of the anxiety he had been feeling having that fear caged in. He couldn't lose her now, it had almost happened the first time she met that freak at the hospital, and Logan had promised never to let her face him alone again.

"I'm not used to being caged up" She said simply, as if processing what he had just said as she talked. "But since I am, I'm glad it's with you." These simple confessions, the admittance of finding each other's company pleasurable was a huge step, and they could both feel the air change in the room.

"Hungry?" Max asked him, playing with the question he often asked her to break the silence.

"Is that a hint?" he laughed, that chuckle she loved, the one that warmed her when she felt cold. She smiled genuinely at him, and suddenly her hand on her leg felt foreign to her, especially when it seemingly belonged on Logan. Before she could experiment with its position Bling opened the door carrying a large brown paper bag.

"Grubs up troops!" He laughed, looking quizzically at Logan and his proximity to Max, especially on her bed.

"At least this cage has five stars" He laughed, Max punched him lightly in the arm and they advanced on the kitchen, the gloom of the penthouse lifted for the first time in days, and both Max and Logan recognised that their friendship was fast becoming something more, but neither was happy knowing that there was something out there, something which was eager to kill the only person left they loved.


End file.
